On the morning of 26 June, he was killed by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber who drove an explosives-laden motorbike into his staff car as it was driving to a military base at Pannipitiya near Colombo.

Completing his training as the second in the order of merit, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and posted to the 1st Battalion of the Gemunu Watch on October 14, 1972.

This included a stint as the first aide-de-camp to Major General Tissa Weeratunga and active service in the northern province with the Gemunu Watch with the onset of the Sri Lankan Civil War, participating in the Vadamarachchi Operation in 1987.

[2][3] On March 24, 1989, he was appointed as staff officer to the intelligence operation headquarters of the Ministry of Defence and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel October 1, 1989.

On the morning of June 26, 2006, Major General Kulatunga was killed along with two other military personnel of his detail, Staff Sergeant Gomes and Corporal Buddhika and a civilian bystander, by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber who drove an explosives-laden motorbike into his Peugeot 406 staff car at Panipitiya as it was driving to army headquarters from his official quarters at the Panagoda Cantonment.

This forced Kulatunga to commute 28 km daily to his office at Army Headquarters from his quarters in the Panagoda Cantonment in his unarmored staff car.

A Memorial Dedication service for Lieutenant General Kulatunga was held at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on October 11, 2006.