They reached out to local police stations and often claimed responsibility for killing militants or affiliates of the JVP through massacres and assassinations.

[4][3] In Kundasale on 13 September 1989, the JVP allegedly killed sixteen family members of three security forces personnel.

[5] In retaliation, the Eagles set fire to a number of residential dwellings in Menikhinna the following night, killing approximately 52 people.

On 5 October 1989, armed vigilantes shot or beheaded fourteen workers at a Peradeniya University residential complex for custodial and clerical staff.

Police later received a message from the vigilantes, who called themselves the Eagles of the Central Hills, claiming responsibility for the murders and that the victims were JVP supporters who had allegedly engineered the murder of T. E. Nagahawatte, an assistant registrar at the university and a captain in the local army volunteer reserve force.