A major historical dataset released yesterday by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) and the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) has documented 10,427 killings and disappearances during the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) deployment period in Sri Lanka, renewing international attention on one of the country’s most sensitive chapters of the conflict.
The research focuses on events between October 1987 and March 1990 in Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern provinces, with the stated goal of restoring identities and ensuring victims are remembered with dignity and historical accuracy.
The figures provide a detailed breakdown of casualties, recording 55 Sinhala victims, 10,086 Tamil victims, 25 Muslim victims, and 201 individuals whose ethnicity was not reported. Researchers say the dataset represents years of reconstruction work aimed at recovering fragmented records from a period marked by conflict, displacement, and inconsistent documentation.
The organisations behind the release describe the effort as part of a long-term truth recovery process designed to support families searching for missing relatives and to strengthen the historical record of mass violence during the IPKF deployment. They emphasize that identifying victims by name is central to acknowledging past suffering and contributing to broader discussions on remembrance, accountability, and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.
