Violence round up – week ending 6 May

 

● Ten civilians were arrested at Valaithodam and three at Wellawatte, both in Colombo city, as they reportedly failed to prove their identity and provide satisfactory reason for their stay in the location. Most of them were arrested while staying in lodges and with friends' houses.

 

● Three students studying advanced level in two prominent high schools in Jaffna were forcibly abducted from their homes by armed men in white vans. Suntharalingam Yasotharan, 17, from Kokuvil East, and Nagarajah Venukanthan, 18, from Brown Road Jaffna are students at Jaffna Hindu College and Kugarajan Kannan, 17, attends St. John's College. Yasotharan's father is a principal at the American Mission College in Thamatti in the islets of Jaffna, and Venukanthan's father is a high level official at the Jaffna branch of the International Committee of Red Cross. The abductors forcibly entered the students' houses by breaking open the entry doors.

 

 

● The LTTE repulsed a fresh offensive by the SLA along the Vavuniya Mannar border, LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told media in Kilinochchi. 2 bodies of SLA soldiers were captured with arms and ammunition by the Tigers when the SLA offensive towards Palmpiddi by more than 300 SLA troopers was thwarted, Mr. Ilanthirayan said. A Tiger fighter was killed in the action. The bodies of the two soldiers were handed to the ICRC on Friday.

 

● One Sri Lanka Police constable was killed when gunmen fired at the sentry point in Pampaimadu in Vavuniya. The gunmen escaped amid a hail of return fire by the police.

 

● Three bodies of civilians were recovered in two sites in Vavuniya. Partially burnt bodies belonging to two males were recovered by Vavuniya police in Povarasangkulam- Cheddikulam junction area. And a third body of a male victim with several gunshot wounds was recovered near Kallaathu bridge. Vavuniya police said that the three victims were probably killed elsewhere and their bodies dumped at the two sites.

 

● A cordon and search operation in Velanai, Jaffna, by the Sri Lanka security forces continued for a second day.

● Two members of the Karuna group were shot and injured in an internal strife at the camp near Toddy Tavern junction on Muhathuvaram Road in Batticaloa. An auto rickshaw driver passing close to the camp, U. M. Nazoordin, 55, a father of four, was caught in the cross fire and was injured.

 

● Twenty-two civilians were arrested in Wellawatte, Colombo, and six of them were produced in court and remanded. Others are being detained in police stations for further inquiry.

 

 

● Two SLA troopers were injured when a claymore device hidden in an empty building along Vathiri-Udupiddi road in Navindil, Vadamaraadchchi, Jaffna, exploded as the troopers tried to remove it. One of the troopers is seriously injured while the other sustained minor injuries.

 

● The LTTE launched heavy artillery fire on SLA FDL positions in Maravanpilavu, Thenmaradchi, Jaffna. Three SLA troopers were seriously injured in the shelling which lasted for about ten minutes.

 

● Kodikaamam police recovered the body of a male, estimated to be between 35 to 40, with gunshot wounds in Kottiyaathoo cemetery in Chanthirapuram, Madduvil, Thenmaradchi, Jaffna. Police found one bullet wound on the head, one on the chest, and another on the leg. The body, clad in blue and black pants with a white shirt with blue and green stripes, is suspected to have been dumped at the site at least a week earlier. The man may have been abducted elsewhere and taken to the cemetery where he was shot, police speculated.

 

● SLN soldiers arrested the chief priest and the Temple Trustee Board Chairman of Perunkulam Muththumaariamman Hindu temple at Velanai in Kayts, an islet of Jaffna, along with three workers, when the temple authorities informed the SLN of explosives found in the temple building site. The temple is located close to Mudippillayar Temple in Velanai west, where the chief priest was one among the six shot dead during SLN search the previous Sunday morning. Two of the five were released the next day.

 

● Armed men opened fire on a police jeep at Punnaikuda in Eravur, Batticaloa, killing a home guard who drove the jeep to the service station at first mile post. Shajahan Fowmi, 28, of Meerakeni, was identified as the home guard killed. Fowmi had driven the jeep with a policeman to the service station where the armed men opened fire.

● Two youths on their way to the temple for prayers were gunned down by men riding a motorbike Wednesday in Velanai east in the Jaffna Islets. Sivapalan Gajendrapalan, 21, and Kandaiah Kannathasan, 28, were relatives, and were riding a bicycle towards the nearby temple when they were shot.

 

 

● Sri Lanka government armed forces arrested two Tamil civilians in Puttalam during the cordon and search operation. The two had failed to prove their identity and the reason for their stay in the location.

 

● Armed men shot dead a fifty-eight year-old civilian at Menkaamam, a Tamil village in SLA controlled Muthur, Trincomalee. The armed gang had forcibly entered the victim’s house and fired at him.

 

● A bail application has been filed in Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal seeking the release of Sebastiampillai Vethanayagam, 40, a minor employee of the Murungkan government hospital in Mannar. Vethanayagam has been detained under the PTA since his arrest on October 5 last year. Police had arrested him while he was cleaning fish, charging that he was providing "secret signals to the enemy" while he cleaned and threw away the refuse.

 

● The LTTE fired artillery shells on areas within the SLA HSZ in Palaali and military helicopters were seen flying about.

 

 

● Thampalakaamam Police arrested a Muslim teacher after recovering a hand grenade and a T 56 rifle magazine with 27 live- bullets hidden in the roof of his house at Mullipothanai, Trincomalee. The police searched the teacher's house on a tip-off.

 

● A SLAF aircraft on a bombing raid south of Iranaimadu in Vannai spewed a large cloud of smoke after a explosion and the jet suspended the bombing raid, struggling to maintain height. Unconfirmed reports from Colombo said a Israeli-built fast attack Kfir which took off from Katunayake Air Force base failed to return. Military officials of the Liberation Tigers told TamilNet that their anti-aircraft defence system automatically activated when an intrusive aircraft was detected in the Iranaimadu area.

 

● Sri Lanka military forces arrested three Tamil civilians in Gomarankadawela village in Morawewa, Trincomalee, during a cordon and search operation. They were taken into custody as they failed to provide satisfactory explanation for their stay in the area.

 

● Armed men shot dead a youth at Dutch Road in Meesaalai, Themaraadchchi, Jaffna. Rasamuthu Kiritharan, 25, may have been abducted elsewhere, brought to Meesaalai and shot dead.