Vehicle ban temporarily lifted

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government agreed to temporarily lift the ban on vehicles leaving the Batticaloa and Ampara districts for two weeks last evening after widespread protest from Tamil and Muslim politicians in the east. The Secretary of the Ministry of Defence said yesterday the the ban would be imposed again at the end of two weeks.

More than a hundred vehicles which rushed today to Mannampiddi on the Batticaloa Polannaruwa border were allowed to proceed after being held up till this afternoon by the army and Police.

The government will complete arrangements for cross loading goods between lorries and transfer of passengers at Mannampiddi and other entry points to the Batticaloa and Ampara districts within two weeks said security sources.

These arrangements will be modelled on those which existed at Thandikkulam and Vavuniya during 1991-1995 they said.

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