Ten SLA soldiers buried alive in muddy soil in Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 17:37 GMT]
Ten soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army were buried alive in the muddy land between Eluthumadduval and Nagarkovil coastal area in Thenmaradchi division in Jaffna district while undergoing training on Wednesday at about 6 p.m., police said.

A group of about thirty army soldiers had gone for training to the muddy land located along the coastal area stretching from Thondamanaru to Vettilaikerni. The soldiers did not know the soil condition of the land where they were engaged in training, and saw three of them going down in the muddy land. Some seven soldiers had gone to the rescue of their fellow soldiers. But they, too, had gone down in the muddy soil. Finally, the rest of the soldiers with great difficulty recovered the bodies of the ten dead soldiers, security sources said.

The Kodikamam Police informed the Chavakachcheri Magistrate Mr.P.Subramaniam about the incident late in the night of Wednesday. The Magistrate rushed to the site and held the inquest into the deaths of these soldiers.

The bodies of soldiers were removed to the Palaly SLA base to be transported to Colombo and from there to the native places of the soldiers, police said.