SLA searches Thinakkural office amid grenade attacks in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2006, 11:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Friday 2.45 p.m. cordoned off and searched the offices of Jaffna daily Yarl Thinakkural amidst escalating incidents of harassment of Jaffna media by the SLA soldiers, sources said. SLA conducted searches inside the building including editorial section, press section, administrative section and advertisement section, media sources said.

Thinakkural officials said that the SLA obtained permission from the adminstrators, and then asked all employees to vacate the building before conducting the search.

The search followed an incident earlier when the SLA sentry near Sivankovilady in KKS Road came under grenade attack by unknown men, sources said. The grenade did not explode, but the businesses around the area started to close. SLA came after a photographer who was taking pictures of events unfolding but the man escaped. Angered by this SLA troopers claimed that the said photographer worked for the Thinakkural daily and decided to search the office, sources said.

Meanwhile, there was another grenade attack on the SLA sentry at the Nallur Kovil Road at 4.45 p.m Friday, sources in Jaffna said. Details of the incident are not yet known.