An afternoon remembrance in Trincomalee marked the 2006 killing of five schoolboys in Trincomalee blamed on the STF.
On 02 January, parents, relatives, friends and social activists gathered at the Gandhi statue roundabout, where the photographs of the victims were garlanded and lamps were lit to their memory.
Manoharan Rajihar, Yogaraja Hemachandran, Shanmugarajah Gajendran, Logidaraja Rohan and Thangaturai Sivananda were gunned down near the beachfront Fort Frederick 19 years ago.
Two others escaped the shooting.
The then Mahinda Rajapaksa regime denied having any connection to the murders.
But, a Tamil journalist exposed the circumstances of their death.
Just 22 days later, Subramaniam Sugirtharajan himself was shot and killed.
He posted pictures of the five schoolboys in ‘Sudaroli’ newspaper in Jaffna to prove they were murdered.
Parents took the murders to the courts and several STF men were arrested on suspicion.
They were released subsequently.
The five students’ killing is not included in the seven high profile crimes which the present government has decided to reinvestigate.