Paranagama told Express here on Sunday, that while investigations by his panel could not come to any precise figure of deaths, it was “certainly not 40,000” as stated in the UN panel report. Even that report was not definitive, only saying that 40,000 may have been killed.

“The Department of Statistics which had done a house to house survey in the conflict zone, and the reports sent out by the various foreign embassies suggest a death toll of 7,700 or thereabouts. Our commission could not arrive at any precise figure, but we think 40,000 was certainly an overestimation,” Paranagama said.

(newindianexpress.com)