A number of incidents have seen Sinhala civilians targeted, with twenty-six killed and a number of others injured in the past fortnight alone. This is an escalation in a war that has, traditionally, seen mostly Tamil civilians targeted.
While the government blamed the LTTE for the attacks, the Liberation Tigers have accused the government of deliberately using paramilitaries to target civilians, and then casting the blame on the Tigers.
In the latest incident, four Sinhalese paddy farmers were shot and killed at Nidanwala in Dimbulagala, Polonnaruwa, by unidentified attackers last Thursday. Three of them died on the spot while the fourth succumbed to his wounds after being admitted to Polonnaruwa hospital.
Earlier, on April 2, at least 16 people were killed and 25 others injured, as a blast ripped through a passenger bus in Kondaivedduvaan, on the outskirts of Amparai.
There were ten women among these killed. One female police constable and a SLA trooper were also killed.
The blast occurred as the bus approached a security checkpoint.
The normal procedure followed by personnel at such checkposts is to disembark all those on board the vehicle, frisk the passengers, and make sure that the vehicle is not a security risk.
The bomb, concealed in a bag and placed on the shelf above the seats in the bus, exploded, the police said.
A statement by the Defence Ministry said the explosion was the handiwork of the Liberation Tigers and was triggered from inside the bus.
The Government denounced the incident as "yet another treacherous act of the reckless terrorist outfit, with callous disregard to civilian lives".
The LTTE, however, denied its involvement and accused the Government of indulging in a disinformation campaign.
Liberation Tigers military spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan, charged Colombo with carrying out a "planned disinformation campaign," by accusing the Tigers of attacks on civilian targets, while encouraging paramilitary elements to carry out such attacks with the "motive of tarnishing the Tiger image."
"We note with concern the recent attacks on civilians in areas near the Sri Lankan military camps," Mr. Ilanthirayan told the media.
The previous night, on April 1, six Sinhala construction workers were killed and one Sinhala and two Tamil workers were seriously wounded in Batticaloa when attackers took them from their workplace and shot them.
Men with guns entered a children’s home under construction, took the workers 200 meters away and shot them.
The massacre took place 300 meters from the Sri Lankan counter-insurgency STF camp at Mailampaaveli, Batticaloa.
The victims were identified as Welage Chandrasiri, 42, from Kelani, T.M. Dhanapala, 54, and his son Dhanapala Wijetunga, 18, from Mahoya, T. Wijakon, 24, from from Mahiyangana and two brothers from Kurunagala, L.M. Dayananda Kapporal, 33, and Maduranga Kapporal, 30.
V. U. Nandanage, 41, from Welimada and two Tamils, Indran Pirapaharan and Maduramuththu Nagarasa from Savukkadi, were wounded and admitted to hospital.
The attackers had first shot at the electricity transformer rendering it useless before cutting and shooting the victims to death.
The LTTE blamed members of the paramilitary Karuna Group for the attack. The government blamed the LTTE.
The construction workers had been hired to construct a Children’s Home capable of housing 40 children for the charity organisation Village of Hope.
The men had been in the area for at least the last eighteen months, engaged in constructing the children home for Village of Hope organisation which takes care of tsunami affected children and widows.
Six mothers and 40 children are already in the home, where English and computer classes are held along with normal educational activities.
The home is located between Mylambaveli STF camp and Eravur police station, about one km from the Muslim area of Eravur.
