A . P . N . C . De S . Vaas Gunawardene Second Lieutenant A . P . N . C . De S . Vaas Gunawardene , SLLI was a Sri Lankan commissioned officer , he is best known as the Patrol Commander of the Four Four Bravo patrol that was ambushed by the LTTE July 23 , 1983 . This incident sparked the Black July riots and is considered to be the start of the Sri Lankan Civil War . Education and Military career . Educated at Ananda College , Colombo , Vaas Gunawardene joined the Sri Lanka Army in 1980 as an Officer cadet and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Sri Lanka Light Infantry . In 1983 he was attached to the C Company of the First Battalion , SLLI Madagal , Jaffna . Ambush . Patrol Four Four Bravo was scheduled to leave Gurunagar ( code name Four Four ) at 2200 hours as a routine patrol from the C Company of the First Battalion of the Sri Lanka Light Infantry based at Madagal about 20 miles away . The patrol arrived at 2147 hours . It consisted of a detachment of 15 soldiers led by Second Lieutenant A . P . N . C . De S . Vaas Gunawardene . The instructions of the Brigadier were that the patrol should be back in Madagal before 2359 hours , if necessary shortening the prescribed route : Gurunagar - Jaffna - Naga Vihara - Nallur - Kopay - Urumpirai - Kondavil - Kokuvil - Jaffna - Kaliyan - kadu - Madagal . 2nd Lt . Gunawardene received the instructions from Major De Silva who further emphasized that the patrol must be in Madagal Camp by midnight . Four Four Bravo left Gurunagar at 2206 hours and was in radio contact every five minutes all reports indicated that Jaffna was quiet . On the July 23 , a patrol , call sign " Four Four Bravo " left their battalion HQ on a routine patrol . " Sellakili " of the LTTE was planning on getting revenge for the death of Charles Lucas Anthony aka Seelan and had observed the army patrols . That night a group of 25 LTTE men , including Velupillai Prabhakaran , Kittu , Iyer , Victor , Pulendran , Shellakili , Santhosam and Appiah gathered at Tinneveli on the Palali - Jaffna road at a point where the road was dug up to install new telecommunication equipment . Near one such excavation four mines were placed and a plunger stolen from the Kankesanturai Cement Factory was placed on the balcony of a nearby house . A machine gun nests were placed near the exploder and across the road . The force was split in two and placed on both sides of the road with Sellakili present . At 2328 hours the patrol reported that it was leaving Urumpirai junction and everything was quiet . The patrol was made up of a jeep with 2nd Lt . Vaas Gunawardene , Private N . A . S . Manutange driving and Corporal G . D . Perera and Private S . S . Amarasinghe , Private S . P . G . Rajatillake and Private K . P . Karunaratne in the rear and a Tata Benz half truck with the rest of the patrol with Sergent S . I . Thelakaratne in the front seat with Corporal G . R . Perera at the wheel and Private A . J . R . Fernando between them . Five minutes of leaving Urumpirai the Jeep was slowing down near Tinneveli because of the obstruction on the road due to the installation of telecommunication equipment . As it was passing the excavation on the road , the exploder set off the mines , followed by a hail of machine gun fire on the Jeep and the half - truck . The explosion of the mines wounded many of the men in the jeep including 2nd Lt . Vaas Gunawardene who leapt out of the Jeep and pulled out a hand grenade , but was mowed down by machine gun fire . The rest in the jeep scrambled out attacked the enemy with hand grenades before being killed . Cpl . C . D . Perera charged at the enemy firing his SLR , his body was found a short distance from the jeep . On witnessing the explosion the half truck stooped and it too came under fire from both parties of the terrorist . The fire killed Cpl . Perera in the driver ' s seat , Private Robert , Sunil and Wijesiri in the rear and wounded Private Manapitiya . Sgt . Thelakaratne and Private Fernando who were both wounded scrambled out , took cover from the vehicle and opened fire , however Fernando was soon killed . Thilakaratne kept firing until home - made grenade blew off one hand and all but blew off one foot . Cpl . R . A . U . Perera and Cpl . Sumathipala kept on firing and the latter in addition lobbed his grenade . In his dying moments Private Manapitiya gave his grenade to the Cpl . Sumathipala who changed their magazines and kept on the pressure on the enemy . At one stage they alighted from the vehicle and kept on firing at the enemy in two different directions thus pinning them down . At 2340 hours a message was sent to Brigadier Balthazar that radio contact with the patrol was lost and that a sentry had heard gunfire and explosions in the distance . The Army camps in Palali , Madagal , Thondamanar and Velvettiturai were alerted and the ambush prepared for Four Four Charlie was canceled by Brigadier Balthazar . It was sent in search of Four Four Bravo . Four Four Charlie located the destroyed vehicles at 0009 hours and reported in . Cpl . R . A . U . Perera also telephoned from the Kondavil CTB Depot about that time . He had fired till he ran out ammunition there after retreated , wounded in both legs . He gave the location of Cpl . Sumathipala , who had also fired till his ammunition was almost expended , and thereafter had retreated and was lying wounded . Brigadier Balthazar him self reached the location , and found Sgt . Thelakaratne in critical condition and sent him to the hospital . He died on the way .