According to eyewitness accounts, six men believed to be from the Sri Lanka navy, dressed in T-shirts and blue trousers and some in shorts, boarded the ferry.

One by one, the passengers were called to the aft section of the boat, told to shout their name, age, address, and the destination of their journey, and then hacked to death.

The government-owned ferry boat, known as a launch in the local Sri Lankan Tamil dialect, was named Kumudini (also Kumuthini) and frequented a number of islets in the Northern province.

The eyewitness and the other people in the fore section did not know that the riflemen were killing each person led away in this manner, as the attackers demanded that the passengers identify themselves at a high enough volume to drown out the victims' cries and threatened to shoot anyone who didn't speak loudly enough.

[4] When it was alleged that navy personnel from the Nainathievu island naval base were responsible for the killings, Lalith Athulathmudali, the then Minister for National Security, reportedly stated, "There is no evidence to show who was responsible,"[1]The rebel group LTTE’s peace secretariat released a statement on November 22, 2006 that alleged that among the 72 people on board the ferry, about 36 were killed and the rest survived.