All photographs by the author, or sent it by the author.
Around 5pm on 17 October 2013, within the Jaffna municipality, one of our friends (a male youth resident of Jaffna) came to our home (a few friends were gathered there) looking very disturbed. We were surprised to see him again, as he was with us since afternoon and had just left a little while ago. After seating himself on a chair, he spoke,
“A female dead body, without cloths, has been found near Naachimar Amma Kovil. I saw it. The sight of it made me sick. There were a few other people looking at it. Chiiiii (he sighed)”. It took a good minute for all of us to comprehend and the first among us to speak. We began to question our friend who brought the news –
“has the police arrived? Is she totally naked? Could it be rape and murder? Can you recognise her face”? Indeed, he did not have clear answers. He kept repeating,
“I don’t think the police have arrived. Someone was calling the police”. Another male friend asked,
“shall we go and make sure that the police arrive”. Five of us (two women and three men), went to the location. The body was found because of the bad odour emanating from it, as it had started decomposing. Because of this, within an hour of it being found, there were about 100 people, mostly men and small boys, trying to view the woman’s dead body. All were intrigued to see the cloth-less female body – despite the fact that it was brutality violated.
