While the massacre was officially attributed to an anti-communist paramilitary group known as the Eagles of the Central Hills,[1] other reports and eyewitness accounts claim that it was a joint operation conducted by the army and police.

In response, the army and police, operating both on-duty and off-duty as vigilante groups, would arrest, torture, and kill people suspected of being sympathetic to the JVP.

In Kundasale on 13 September 1989, the JVP allegedly killed sixteen family members of three security forces personnel.

[3] The following night, armed men in uniform set fire to a number of residential dwellings in Menikhinna, killing approximately 52 people.

[2] On 5 October, armed vigilantes shot or beheaded fourteen workers at a Peradeniya University residential complex for custodial and clerical staff.