COLOMBO, Aug 15: Muslims in the east of Sri Lanka marked ‘martyrs day’ on Sunday in memory of 120 Muslims who were massacred by the LTTE on Aug 12 in 1990.

As Muslim shops in Batticaloa remained closed and white flags flew over houses in remembrance of that night when families were killed in their beds in Eravur in Batticaloa, Muslim civil society leaders unanimously agree that the rights of Muslims in Sri Lanka’s war trapped north-east are buried in the unrest and suffering that have trailed the bloody 24-year old war.

“In eastern Batticaloa the LTTE massacred entire families of Muslims, gunning them down and stabbing them to death.

And now Muslims in the east are still trapped, most of them in refugee camps, unable to return to their homes with ease of mind, their plight largely invisible to the local authorities and the world”, says M. I. M. Mohideen, Secretary-General of the Muslim Peace Secretariat.

“The fighting is between Sri Lankan government troops and the Tiger guerillas but sandwiched between are the Muslims.

Now although the military has captured all LTTE held areas in the Batticaloa district, the difficulties Muslims face remain the same”, he says.

On Tuesday reports indicated that a tense situation prevailed in the eastern town of Muttur where government defence authorities had ordered the eviction of over 250 Muslim families who had returned this year to their homes in eastern Trincomalee after living as refugees for over 22 years.