The police initially maintained that Sakelle had doused himself in kerosene and set himself alight; an unusual means of suicide for a doctor with easy access to a wide range of toxins.
The library was a symbol of Tamil herritage and the fire was one of the early triggers for the Tamil tiger insurgency. High ranking government officials were in the town when uniformed men said the building alight.
Little did sot sound know however that those ships were full of flammable reeds as they approached his fleet they were set alight and destroyed his ships in camp.