24 Mannar Tamils seek refuge in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 January 2006, 12:39 GMT]
A group of twenty four Tamils including nine children from Selvapuram and Olathoduvai in Mannar district reached Rameswaram coast in Ramanathapuram Thursday, a daily in Tamil Nadu said. The influx has begun after a lapse of three years and refugees said threat of war, and harassment by the Sri Lanka armed forces after the recent attack on Sri Lanka Navy as the reasons for deciding to leave Sri Lanka shores, the paper said.

A boat operator had dropped the refugees near Arichalmunai at 3 a.m. on Thursday, and security forces at a checkpoist intercepted the refugees Thursday morning, the paper quoted police sources as saying.

The refugees were taken to Thanushkodi police station for inquiries, the paper said.

P Sudan, 23, was a second-time refugee having been an inmate of the Thiruvadhavur refugee camp in Madurai in 1990.

With increasing tension in Mannar and surrounding areas the paper says there is bound to be additional influx of refugees.