Background
The incident occurred during the Sri Lankan civil war, which began with the 1983 Black July pogrom. In the early 1990s civilians, mostly minority Sri Lankan Tamils, were living within the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled Jaffna peninsula. They were forced to use boats to travel to mainland Sri Lanka, as the land connection between the mainland and the Jaffna peninsula, which is separated by the Jaffna lagoon (also known as Kilaly lagoon), was blocked by a military camp at the isthmus of Elephant Pass. The rebel group LTTE had also prohibited civilians from using the land route.
Prior to the January 2 attack, roughly 15 civilians that were trying to cross the lagoon had been killed by the Navy, which lead boat operators to refuse to travel the route. This stranded 800 people on both sides of the lagoon without food and shelter. Eventually, the boat operators relented and began traveling between the peninsula and the mainland on January 2.
Read more about this topic: Jaffna Lagoon Massacre
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