JAFFNA, October 31: On the morning of October 30, 1986, gunfire broke out while classes were under way at Jaffna Central College. In a classroom on the second floor, a prefect named Ponnampalam Vipulananthan told the students to stay quiet and stay where they were. Then he went and stood near the wall. Seconds later, a bullet hit him in the left side of his back.
“He cried out ‘Amma, Amma,’ held his back with his hand and fell, writhing,” a classmate, P. Ramanan, told a magistrate’s inquest the next day. “I and the other students ran and lifted him.”
He was taken by van to Jaffna Hospital. Doctors there operated and removed a bullet, but he died. It was the day before Deepavali.
Yesterday marked 40 years since his death. At Jaffna Central College, students who become prefects are still told about him. “For everyone who takes on the role of student leader at Jaffna Central College, there is one person who serves as a guide in their minds,” a former student wrote in a tribute posted this week. “That is the late Pon. Vipulananthan.”
The Morning of the Shooting
Vipulananthan lived on Kasthuriyar Road in Jaffna and was studying science for his G.C.E. Advanced Level exams. A memorial notice issued by the college’s Batch of 1988 gives his date of birth as November 22, 1969. That would mean he was 16, about three weeks short of his 17th birthday.
Uthayan, the Jaffna Tamil daily, put the story on its front page the next morning under the headline “Schoolboy Killed by Fort Gunfire.” Its staff reporter, K. Ratnarajasingam, wrote that the college was fired on during school hours and that the bullet that killed Vipulananthan came from Jaffna Fort. At the time, the Sri Lankan Army was largely confined to garrisons such as the Fort, and Tamil militant groups controlled much of the peninsula.
According to Uthayan, the students panicked when they heard the shots. Vipulananthan was telling them to stay calm when he was hit, and the students who saw him fall bleeding were left stunned. A strapline on the same page read: “He said ‘Don’t make noise,’ and fell with blood gushing.”
The Jaffna papers gave different accounts of what came before the shooting. Uthayan reported that several landmines exploded near the Fort at around 9:20 a.m. Another Jaffna paper reported that fighters of the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam, known as PLOTE, had kept a sentry post near the college. According to that paper, the army opened sustained fire from the Jaffna police station after the PLOTE fighters pulled out and a landmine they had buried was defused.
The Inquest
On October 31, Jaffna Magistrate A. Anthony held an inquest into the death. Ramanan told the court that the students were in a classroom on the second floor of the college’s upper block. When the first shot rang out, he said, Vipulananthan told them to stay quiet in the room and went to stand by the wall.
“Two or three more shots were heard, one after another,” Ramanan said. “He was hit and fell. We ran and caught hold of him. Blood was coming from his back.” He said a teacher and several students took Vipulananthan to the hospital in the van.
Police gave the court the bullet that had been removed during surgery. Vipulananthan’s father, Velupillai Ponnampalam, also gave evidence. The magistrate ordered a post-mortem examination and adjourned the inquest.
The Funeral
The funeral took place on Deepavali day. That morning, student leaders at Central College asked students at other colleges in Jaffna town to boycott classes so they could attend. The college stayed closed.
Vipulananthan’s body lay at his family home on Kasthuriyar Road until 3 p.m. Large numbers of students, teachers and members of the public came to lay wreaths. A Jaffna paper reported that those who paid their respects included the Jaffna Government Agent, M. Panchalingam; the Director of Education, R. Sundaralingam; the principal of Central College, V. Balasundaram; and principals and teachers from colleges and schools across the district. The Jaffna Teaching Hospital welfare society also took part. The college anthem was sung at the end of the tribute.
Central College teachers and his relatives carried the coffin to the gate of the house. From there, student leaders carried it along Kasthuriyar Road to Kannathiddy junction, where it was placed in a hearse and covered with the college flag. Scouts marched beside the hearse, and student leaders walked in front carrying wreaths. The procession went along Kasthuriyar Road, Navalar Road, Kankesanthurai Road, Ayyanar Kovil Road and Manipay Road to the Kombayanmanal cemetery, where he was cremated.
Other stories on Uthayan’s front page that day showed how violent the period was. One reported that 10 soldiers had been killed in a landmine attack at Mankulam and carried a statement from the Liberation Tigers about it. Another reported a protest march by the Jaffna University employees’ union after a university staff member, S. Kumarasingam, was wounded when shells fell on Jaffna town.
What the School Remembers
The college’s Batch of 1988 marked the anniversary this week with a memorial notice. It showed his school photograph next to the newspaper coverage from October 31, 1986, under the heading “Never Forgotten.”
One of the college’s current teachers wrote a remembrance that also circulated this week. He was 4 or 5 years old in 1986 and lived close to the school. He wrote that he remembers shots coming from the direction of the Fort, first one and then many. He joined the college in Grade 1 the following year.
Accounts that former students have passed down place Vipulananthan at the doorway of a classroom in Smith Block, holding his arms out to stop the younger children from running and telling them to stay calm and not be afraid. The teacher wrote that he heard the story from a senior student who had moved abroad and come back for the Battle of the North, the college’s annual cricket match against St. John’s College.
“We lifted him, Master,” the former student told him. “We ran to the hospital through the primary section gate. His white uniform was soaked in blood.”
