Thambipillai Thanalakshmi is a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was 43 when she was raped in Meesalai in Jaffna

Jaffna

Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical...

 in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 on July 7, 2001. Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 claimed that the Sri Lankan Army

Sri Lankan Army

The Sri Lanka Army is the oldest and largest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and is responsible for land-based military and humanitarian operations. Established as the Ceylon Army in 1949, it was renamed when Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972...

 soldiers were the culprit.

Incident

According to Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, Thanalakshmi was dragged outside her house at around 8.30pm allegedly by several soldiers. Her mother hearing her screaming came to save her but was assaulted by the perpetrators. Thanalakshmi was taken to a rice field and raped by at least three of them. The next morning relatives lodged a police complaint and police recovered part of Thanalakshmi's clothes from the rice field and a medical examination done by the medical personnel at Mantikai hospital confirmed she had been raped.

Government investigation

Suspected soldiers were arrested and produced before a Magistrate on July 13, 2001. But no charges were filed as of January 28, 2002.

See also

• Ilayathambi Tharsini
  Ilayathambi Tharsini
  Ilayathamby Tharsini also Tharsini Ilayathamby was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was raped and killed in her home town of Pungudutheevu on December 16, 2005.-The incident:...
  
  
• Ida Carmelitta
  Ida Carmelitta
  Ida Carmelitta or Farheen Ida Carmelitta Laila Figerardo was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was gang raped and killed on 12 July 1999 and became a cause célèbre of the Sri Lankan civil war.-Incident:...
  
  
• Sarathambal
  Sarathambal
  Sarathambal Saravanbavananthatkurukal or better known as Sarathambal was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was gang raped and killed on 28 December 1999. This became an internationally known incident of the Sri Lankan Civil War.-Incident:...
  
  
• Murugesapillai Koneswary
  Murugesapillai Koneswary
  Murugesapillai Koneswary or Koneswary Murugesapillai was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was raped and killed on 17 May 1997 as part of the ongoing Sri Lankan civil war. The rape and murder received extensive local and international attention....