EPDP cadre shot dead in east

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 March 2004, 05:55 GMT]
Unidentified gunman shot dead a cadre of the EPDP, a paramilitary group operating with the Sri Lankan army Monday night in Valaichenai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Police said. Mr. Ponnaiah Yogendran, 25, was walking towards the EPDP camp in the SLA Valaichenai fisheries harbour garrison around 10 p.m. when he was shot, according to Police sources in the eastern town.

The gunmen got away, they said. The place where the EPDP cadre was killed is in a high security zone dotted with Police and military camps and sentries.

EPDP cadres at the Valaichenai camp blamed the LTTE for the killing.

An LTTE official in the east, however, vehemently denied the charge. ''This is part of a premeditated plan to discredit the inevitable outcome of the elections'', he said.