Rape and abduction of women in the east go unnoticed. ........Just before Batti MC election over 20 women were raped by STF in Akkaraipattu. Below incident happened on day of the PC election.  Election monitoring bodies have not considered these as election related violence leave alone any other action by the civil society groups.  By JamilaNajimuddin

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Living in a tiny mud house in Kalmunai, in the Ampara District, Seetha’s story needs no repeated publicity to catch anyone’s attention. It is a story of a mother’s pain in seeking justice for her two teenage daughters. Shunned by society, Seetha says she will not stop till she receives some answers and vows to search for the perpetrators who tore her family apart. She also says that she will voice her pleas till her abducted daughter is returned to her, safely.

Seetha’s story starts when in the early hours of May 10, she was awoken by a loud bang on her front door. She heard voices of men outside, urging her to let them in as they had claimed to be on a search operation in the area. The men had screamed saying they were from the security forces and needed to search the house, as an explosion had rocked Ampara the previous night. It was Election Day and Seetha had no choice but to unbolt the door, despite no male being present in the house. Seetha’s husband was in Colombo that day for some work and was to return home later that evening.

Afraid to let strangers into her home, Seetha had, before unbolting the door, locked the bedroom door of her two young daughters. She had heard stories of young girls being abducted in the dark and wanted to protect her daughters from suffering a similar fate. Her daughters aged 16 and 18 were still schooling and Seetha said she accompanied them whenever they left the house in order to protect them from the ‘white van.’ Her husband too, avoided working in the nights in order to stay with his family.

Seetha hid the bedroom key in the kitchen and hurried to open the door. She had believed the men when they said they were from the security forces and needed to search the house as news of a bomb blast had spread fast in Ampara the previous night.  Unbolting the door, Seetha saw three men, in trousers and shirts standing in her doorway. They were armed with knives and pistols and forced themselves in. Their breaths had been reeking with alcohol and one of them had immediately pinned Seetha to the floor and covered her mouth. Unable to scream, tears had poured down Seetha’s face. Her only hope was that her daughters, who were sleeping in the other room would remain quiet, in order to remain unnoticed by the thugs. While two of the men had searched Seetha’s house for some valuables, one of them had tried to force himself into the locked bedroom. Her two daughters had by that time realized the presence of strangers in their home and had hidden underneath the bed.

Questioning Seetha about what was behind the locked door, Seetha said in a desperate plea to leave her alone as she was alone in the house at that time. She also said that it was a room which had been given to her nephew and since he was away in Colombo, he had locked it.

However, laughing at her story, Seetha watched helplessly while the two goons broke open the door to find two teenage girls hiding underneath the bed. 

With tears pouring down their cheeks, the girls were dragged out and thrown on the bed. Seetha said she screamed, hoping that someone would hear her pleas, but all screams fell to deaf ears as she saw her two daughters being stripped by the men. One of the men, held onto Seetha and tied a rope round her mouth to prevent her screams.

Unable to explain her grief, Seetha explained how she had to hear the screams of her two young daughters while they were being raped by the two men. By that time Seetha had been tied and had to watch helplessly while the third man too seemed to enjoy in their disgusting behaviour. Trying to break loose with all her might, Seetha said all was in vain while the men left minutes later. However before leaving they had threatened Seetha and her two daughters to remain quiet or pay with their lives, if anyone was informed about the incident.

To watch two daughters lying helplessly on the floor in a pool of blood was what Seetha never expected on that Election Day. Her elder daughter who was barely able to walk had untied Seetha minutes later and had collapsed. Her younger daughter had remained unconscious. Seetha had, in the early morning, rushed both her daughters, with the assistance of a relative who lived nearby to the Kalmunai Hospital. Both were discharged later that evening. “The doctors did not seem to care what had happened. They were afraid to get involved. After treating my two girls, they wanted me to take them home immediately. By evening they were suffering from high fever,” Seetha told the Daily Mirror.

After the hospital staff refused to treat the girls further, Seetha said she brought both her daughters home. Her relative had stayed with her and had assisted her as Seetha too was recovering from her shock. “I felt I was the guilty one as I had to watch helplessly as my daughters were being raped. Such a disaster should never fall on any mother. There were times when I felt like I was about to collapse but if I had not been strong, my daughters would have died,” Seetha said.

Seetha’s husband retuned home later that evening to find this once peaceful family destroyed forever. He said he found his wife weeping on the floor while his two daughters lay asleep on the bed, with scars on their faces. While Seetha’s relative narrated the story to him, the grief stricken father collapsed on the floor, unable to hear the sordid details. Afraid that they would return and harm his family, he prevented Seetha from rushing to the police station. “My husband was afraid that they would return and kill us. Our lives were already destroyed but at least we were alive. He wanted me to remain quiet and wanted to do everything possible to ensure that our daughters recovered safely,” she said.

While Seetha abided by her husband’s request, their tragedy took a turn for the worst when later that night, five men with sharp weapons and pistols stormed into their house once again. The men had broken the front door and had abused Seetha’s husband and relative severely. They had then stormed into Seetha’s daughters’ bedroom and had dragged her elder daughter, who was still suffering from a high temperature. Seetha said she saw a van parked outside and her daughter was forced into it. The van then disappeared with her daughter inside.

Minutes later, with her husband and relative bleeding profusely, Seetha rushed to the police station. However she alleged that the police officer who was on duty at that time had refused to lodge her complaint as he said that they were busy with election related incidents. Results of the Eastern Provincial Council elections had also just started to pour in, due to which Seetha’s tears and pleas to lodge her complaint had been ignored. “There were very few policemen on duty at that time. They were busy with election work and no one seemed to care about what I said. I was thrown from pillar to post and told to return the next day. They also told me I would have to produce several documents to prove that I was a Kalmunai resident, before lodging a complaint,” Seetha said.

She returned home, with little hope in the police and decided to be with her family.

“My husband and relative were hurt. My younger daughter who was very sick was crying for me. I felt I had been burnt alive,” a grief stricken Seetha said. The only thing she said she could do that night was hold her younger daughter in her arms, hoping that the perpetrators would never return. “No one knows the plight of losing a child till it actually happens. I lost my family that day. I do not have any hope of seeing my daughter again. I feel my life has ended,” a tearful Seetha said.