Paramilitaries abduct scores in Batticaloa

Complaints were made to Eravur Police that at least 20 Tamil youngsters playing with their friends near Vishnu Temple surroundings were abducted by unidentified persons in a white van on August 15.

About fifteen unidentified armed men in a van took the boys away at gunpoint. The boys come from several villages including Santhiveli, Murakoddanchenai, Sithandy, Mawadivembu, Vantharumoolai and Kaluwankerni in the Eravur police division in Batticaloa district.

However only parents of five abducted youths – Giritharan Sulojan, 22, Sinnathurai Siventhran, 15, Ilayathamby Raveendran, 18 and Ramalingam Vethanayagam, 36 of Santhiveli and Krishnapillai Sivamoorthy, 17 of Sithandy – lodged formal complaints with Police.

Cadres of the paramilitary Karuna Group working with the SLA abducted 15 Tamil civilians in Batticaloa and Amparai Districts on August 11 (Fri) and 12 (Sat).

Relatives have lodged complaints with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that 9 Thirukkovil residents and 5 Thampiluvil residents were abducted Saturday evening by unidentified persons in a white-van and a car.

Hundreds of teenage boys have been abducted by Army-backed paramilitaries this year. Escapees and deserting paramilitary cadres say many are forcibly recruited into the Army-backed shadow war against the Liberation Tigers.

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