[2] On 24 October 2000, a mob of a few hundred villagers armed with knives, rods and torches stormed the detention centre.
The Sri Lankan Army detachment that was posted there had been withdrawn the previous day, for unknown reasons.
[1] Once the massacre started, the posted police personnel refused to intervene to stop it.
Then it was claimed that the police were unable to protect the detainees in the face of superior mob force.
Most were initially convicted of murder, only to be released by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court in 2005.