Sand smugglers who threatened to kill Tamil journalist arrested
Two men have been arrested for assaulting and threatening to kill a senior Tamil journalist in the war-torn district of Mullaitivu, while he was reporting on a sand smuggling operation in that area.
Shanmugam Thavaseelan, who is also the former chairman of the Mullaitivu Media Society, had filed a complaint with the Mankulam Police regarding the death threats and assaults he received on February 15, 2025. He provided the police with photographs of the two men who threatened him and details of the motorcycle on which they arrived which bore the number NP BFR 8429.
The journalist says that he has come to know that illegal sand mining is taking place in the forests on the sides of the A9 road. This is including in the areas of Panikkankulam, Kilavankulam and Padinettampor in the Mankulam police area of the Mullaitivu district.
The land authorities in the area have confirmed that there is no permission for the sand mining taking place.
On February 15, 2025, while he was visiting an illegal sand mining site in the Padinettampor area to report on the incident, as he was recording the smugglers with a mobile phone they have attacked him and his mobile phone, as well as demanding his identity documents.
While the smugglers were checking his ID, journalist Shanmugam Thavaseelan had called the Mankulam Police Station and informed them of the situation he was facing. The two attackers, who returned his media ID, have left the scene on a motorcycle, threatening to kill him.
They had also taken a tractor that was loading sand from the site at that time, and after they left, police officers arrived at the A9 road near the scene.
The journalist went to the Mankulam police station that same evening and filed a complaint with the police regarding the assault and death threats that were made against him.
2020 Timber smugglers attack
Two Tamil journalists, Kanapathipillai Kumanan and Shanmugam Thavaseelan, who were investigating an illegal teak timber trade in the Mullaitivu district, were also brutally attacked by timber smugglers on October 12, 2020.
In February 2025, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) MP for the Vanni District, Thurairasa Raviharan, recalled in Parliament how journalists that exposed corruption were being targeted by criminals.
“When illegal logging in the Mullaitivu district was exposed, journalists who went to cover it - Kanapathipillai Kumanan and Shanmugam Thavaseelan were attacked by illegal timber smugglers.”
Journalist Shanmugam Thavaseelan has been reporting on the problems faced by Tamils in the region, including state-sponsored crimes, in the most militarized area of the island. This is despite intimidation, death threats and attacks by security forces.
