A grieving family’s decades-long search for truth continues as another parent of the disappeared passes away without answers
A Tamil mother who spent nearly seventeen years searching for her forcibly disappeared sons and son-in-law after they surrendered to the Sri Lankan military during the final stages of the armed conflict has died without receiving answers or justice.
Murugesupillai Sellamma, 74, from Muththaiyankattu in Mullaitivu district, passed away on 27 April 2026 after years of campaigning alongside families of the disappeared demanding truth, accountability and international justice.
Sellamma and her family crossed into Sri Lankan military-controlled territory through the Mullivaikkal-Vattuvakal bridge on 18 May 2009, during the final days of the genocide in Mullivaikkal.
Trusting assurances given by the Sri Lankan military that surrendered LTTE members would undergo “rehabilitation” and later be reunited with their families, Sellamma handed over her two sons and her daughter’s husband to Sri Lankan troops.
According to the family, no information has ever been provided regarding their fate or whereabouts.
For years afterwards, Sellamma joined roadside protests and campaigns organised by families of the forcibly disappeared across the Tamil homeland, where relatives have continuously demanded international investigations into enforced disappearances carried out during and after the armed conflict.
Her daughter, Sasikumar Ranjinidevi, continued the struggle while caring for younger family members and elderly parents.
She currently serves as secretary of the Mullaitivu Association of Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared and has campaigned for justice for her two brothers, her husband and her husband’s brother, all of whom disappeared after surrendering to the Sri Lankan military in 2009.
The family suffered another loss earlier this year when Sellamma’s husband, Murugesupillai, died on 27 February 2026.
Just two months later, Sellamma has now also passed away, leaving behind a family still searching for answers.
Her death adds to the growing number of Tamil parents and relatives of the disappeared who have died over the years without learning the fate of loved ones who vanished during the final phase of the Mullivaikkal genocide.
Thousands of Tamils, including individuals who surrendered directly to Sri Lankan security forces at the end of the war, remain unaccounted for.
Families of the disappeared have repeatedly stated that many parents who personally witnessed their children surrender to the Sri Lankan military are now dying without truth, accountability or justice ever being delivered.
Despite years of protests across the North-East, successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to provide credible answers regarding the fate of the disappeared, while international calls for accountability over wartime atrocities and enforced disappearances continue to intensify.