The family of the 17-year-old Tamil boy shot dead by Sri Lankan police in Jaffna have slammed the security forces for the killing, stating that he was gunned down while travelling to transport labourers for work.
The boy’s maternal aunt, speaking to the media, said that the teenager had been driving to Velanai to pick up labourers when Sri Lankan police opened fire on the vehicle. She stated that he was struck by police gunfire and died at the scene.
The shooting took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning, when Sri Lankan police officers attempted to stop a vehicle that they claim failed to comply with orders at a checkpoint in Jaffna. Police later stated that they opened fire after the vehicle continued to move.
However, the boy’s aunt disputed the circumstances surrounding the shooting, explaining that although the teenager did not possess a valid driving licence, he had been working as a driver due to severe economic hardship faced by the family. She alleged that he had been able to continue working without a licence by paying bribes to Sri Lankan police officers.
According to her account, the boy did not stop the vehicle when police attempted to intercept it because he did not have any money with him at the time. She alleged that this was the reason police opened fire on the vehicle.
The two other individuals who were travelling in the vehicle at the time of the shooting were also close relatives of the deceased.
Due to extreme family hardship, the boy had gone to work at the age of seventeen, his aunt said, adding through tears, “They shot and killed him unjustly.”
The killing has intensified concerns among Tamils over Sri Lanka’s occupation of the North-East and its ongoing abuses. The teenager’s death follows a pattern of police shootings and disappearances in the Tamil homeland, where checkpoints continue to operate years after the end of the armed conflict, and where Tamil families say economic precarity and structural discrimination leave young people especially vulnerable.
