PLOTE councillor killed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 May 1999, 15:12 GMT]
Unidentifed gunmen shot dead Veerahaththy Gunaratnam, 42, a PLOTE member of the Pachchilaipalli Pradheshiya Sabha (PS) in Jaffna, at Kurumankaadu, a suburb of Vavuniya town, this evening around 7.15 p.m. The shooting was on the Railway Station Road, near the office of the TULF sources said. Gunaratnam's nephew Kirupaharan, 19, who was with him was wounded by in the shooting.

The gunmen had got away in an autorickshaw by the time armed cadres of the PLOTE rushed to the spot. The PLOTE's office is about 500 meters from where the the PS member was shot dead.

The paramilitary group took the body of its Pradheshiya Sabha member to the Vavuniya hospital sources said.

Gunaratnam was working at the parking lot for lorries run by the PLOTE at Thirunaavatkulam in Thaandikkulam, three kilometers north of Vavuniya, although he was a member of the Pachchilaippalli PS in Jaffna sources said.

Meanwhile a body guard of an EPDP local body chairman was shot and grievously wounded by unidentified gunmen this morning around 10 a.m. at Manipay in Jaffna.

The chairman of the Valikamam Southwest Pradheshiya Sabha (PS) Anton V. Johnson for whom the gunmen had come looking escaped unhurt through the back door of his office said EPDP sources.

Two youth, according to them had come on bicycles to the Valikamam Southwest PS office and had attempted to force their way in.

They had shot the Mr.Anton's bodyguard Anthony Muththu in the ensuing scuffle.

The Suthumalai Sri Lanka Army camp is close to this PS office. The gunmen, however, managed to escape from the scene said Police sources.