Suresh Kumar and Ranjith Kumar incident

Suresh Kumar and Ranjith Kumar were minority Sri Lankan Tamils working for the Uthayan – a Tamil newspaper published from Jaffna. Uthayan has been specifically targeted for its independent reporting by the Sri Lankan military and the paramilitary group EPDP.^[1][2] They were killed on 2 May 2006 during an attack on the Uthayan office.

Background

In Jaffna – which was under Sri Lankan army control during the Sri Lankan civil war– journalists, human rights activists and civilians lived under constant fear. The two journalists' killing was part of a series of killing, abduction and attacks on the Tamil media in Sri Lanka.^[3][4][5] These killings, abductions and threats were seen as part of the dirty war launched by Mahinda Rajapaksa government.^[6][7]

Incident and reaction

Suresh Kumar and Ranjith Kumar were killed after a Uthayan published a cartoon mocking Douglas Devananda the leader of EPDP a paramilitary group allied with the Sri Lankan Army.^[8] Armed Gunmen entered the office of Uthayan in army controlled Jaffna on 2 May 2006 and demanded to see the editor R. Kuhanathan and finding he was not there opened fire and the two employees died instantly.^[9][10][11]