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Nahathambiran pilgrim claymore attack 02 June

On 2 June 2008, a car carrying three families of pilgrims returning from a temple festival of the locally famous Nahathambiran Hindu temple in the Vanni region came under the claymore attack of the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka military. Six people were killed and four more were injured. During normalcy this temple festival would attract huge crowds. However, due to the frequent claymore attacks and aerial bombing, such temple festivals and other public functions did not attract huge crowd in the Vanni area during the period of this attack. This was also true for this temple festival. This particular car was, however, returning from the temple festival and was carrying ten people including women and children from three families. As the car was travelling on the Oddisuddan-Mankulam road around 8.00pm it came under a claymore attack eight kilometers from Mankulam in the village called Karippaddamurippu. All six of the victims were killed on the spot. The four injured people were transferred to Mullaithivu hospital after a long delay.
Names of victims (name, age)
1. Iyathurai Vasanthakumar, 30
2. Kanapathipillai Kanesh
3. Kanapathipillai Muruhathas, 38
4. Kanesalingam Kanista, 8
5. Muruhathas Thanushan, 4
6. Tharmalingam Loheswari, 45