Born in Lewella, Kandy, to Lionel and Leela Kulatunga. He was the youngest of four siblings, Lumbini, Samantha and Indu. Kulatunga was educated at Trinity College, Kandy, where he played rugby and became the Senior Regimental Sergeant Major of the Senior Cadet Platoon.
On March 24, 1989, he was appointed as staff officer to the intelligence operation headquarters of the Ministry of Defence and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel October 1, 1989. On January 56, 1990, he was appointed as a general staff officer to the 23rd Brigade, taking part in the Operation Balavegaya in 1991 and was thereafter transferred to the general staff of the 2nd Division headquarters with promotion to the rank of colonel on June 27, 1993. He was thereafter appointed as deputy commandant of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy at Ratmalana on November 31, 1993, and took over as assistant military secretary at the Ministry of Defence June 10, 1994. Kulatunga had attended the Senior Command Course at the Army War College, Mhow; the Advanced Intelligence Course in Singapore and the Intelligence Staff Officers’ Course at the Military Intelligence Training School in Pune.
On the morning of June 26, 2006, Major General Kulatunga was killed along with two other military personnel of his detail, Staff Sergeant Gomes and Corporal Buddhika and a civilian bystander, by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber who drove an explosives-laden motorbike into his Peugeot 406 staff car at Panipitiya as it was driving to army headquarters from his official quarters at the Panagoda Cantonment. He was age 55 at the time of his death. The government did not retaliate in force due to international press.
Threats
The State Intelligence Service and the Directorate of Military Intelligence had issued warring that despite the ceasefire agreement that was in place at the time, the LTTE was targeting senior military leaders. On 25 April 2006, the Commander of the Army, Lieutenant GeneralSarath Fonseka was severely wounded by an LTTE suicide bomb attack on his unarmored staff car at the army headquarters. Fonseka was transferred to Singapore for medical treatment. Major General Nanda Mallawaarachchi, Chief of Staff of the Army, took over temporary command of the army and Major General Kulatunga became the second in command effectively. Having received warnings, Kulatunga had requested quarters within the Army Headquarters, however this request was turned down. This forced Kulatunga to commute 28 km daily to his office at Army Headquarters from his quarters in the Panagoda Cantonment in his unarmored staff car.
Funeral
Major General Kulatunga was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant general effective from June 28, 2006, the day his funeral took place at the Colombo general cemetery with full military honors. A Memorial Dedication service for Lieutenant General Kulatunga was held at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on October 11, 2006.
Investigation
Police Criminal Investigation Department investigations into the attacks on Fonseka and Kulatunga, discovered LTTE links with organized crime groups in Colombo and military personnel who had collaborated with the LTTE for money. Major Manamendra Dassanayake was convicted of aiding and abetting the LTTE in the assassinations of Lieutenant General Parami Kulathunga and Colone Tuan Nizam Muthaliff, while Major Piyasiri Perera who was sentenced to death by a Court Marshall for treason was also implicated in the assassination.
