Anxiously waiting for something that is never coming is unparalleled anguish. As Nadarajah Thangavelu sat in his dull prison cell at Welikada Prison with his cellmates Kuttimani, Devan, Sivapatham, and Nadesudasan, the only thing on his mind was whether his appeal to the Supreme Court for his arrest would be heard, knowing the chances of that happening was slim to none. They had all heard about some anti-Tamil riots that had started the night before in Colombo through the grapevine and were getting fearful that those riots could spread to Welikada Prison.

Those fears became reality as soon as Sinhalese prisoners began running rampant, gruesomely murdering Tamil prisoners left and right. Wielding knives and clubs, the prisoners were able to break into the Tamil prison cells with unusual ease. As the Sinhalese prisoners wreaked havoc throughout Welikada, Thangadurai and Kuttimani were amongst the Tamils taken.

Holding nothing back, the Sinhalese forced Thangadurai and Kuttimani onto their knees while they plead for mercy. As other Tamil prisoners watched, the two men had their eyes brutally gauged out with iron bars whilst looking up at the heartless men murdering them. The murderers turned to beasts as one of the attackers slit Kuttimani’s tongue out with one swift cut, watching the blood spurt out of his mouth and onto the cold prison floor. As the horror on the other prisoners’ faces grew, the attacker took a handful of the blood spraying out of Kuttimani’s mouth and drank it down. Licking the blood off of his fingers, he screamed out to the crowd, “I have drunk the blood of a Tiger!”

"Licking the blood off of his fingers, he screamed out to the crowd, “I have drunk the blood of a Tiger!”

The soulless killing of Thangadurai and Kuttimani on Monday, July 25th, 1983 were 2 murders amongst 39 that day. It was later found out that the prison guards on duty that day let their prison cell keys to fall into the hands of the Sinhalese prisoners.

-Anonymous