Grenade shatters brief peace in Muslim town

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 November 2004, 17:37 GMT]
Two days of relative calm in Kattankudy, a large Muslim town in Batticaloa torn by religious rioting since 31 October, was shattered Saturday when a man suspected to be a member of an armed Islamic group lobbed a grenade at a Sufi home. Police patrolling the riot afflicted area gave chase to the attacker and took him into custody. A spokesman for Abdur Rauf Mowlavi, the leading Sufi cleric of Kattankudy, repeated the charge that a Wahabi extremist group funded by powerful sources in the Middle East is responsible for the violence.

Meanwhile, unidentified persons lobbed a grenade at a doctor's home on Upstair Road in Puliyanthivu, a high security suburb of Batticaloa town, Saturday night around 7 p.m. The reason for the attack is not clear, Police said. No one was hurt in the explosion. The attacked house is behind the camp of a paramilitary, Police said.

Police said that they are questioning the man who allegedly lobbed the grenade at the home of a woman who is the sister of Sajahan Mowlavi, a Sufi cleric, on Meerapalli Road in Kattankudy.