SLA assaults Hindu priest after grenade attack

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 June 2006, 19:30 GMT]
Unidentified persons lobbed a hand grenade on the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) unit patrolling along the Kaithady-Kopay road in Thenmaradchchy Jaffna, Friday morning around 10.30 a.m causing minor injuries to two SLA troopers, sources from Kaithady said. The SLA troopers arrested the Hindu priest at a nearby Hindu Temple during the cordon and search operation, and assaulted him severely before releasing him in the evening, sources added.

Meanwhile, the SLA blocked all traffic between Puthur junction and Nunavil junction, a 20 km stretch on the A9 highway, from Friday noon till evening for moving convoys of large numbervehicles, troopers and heavy army machinery to the Front Defence Line (FDL) positions, said sources from the area.

SLA soldiers diverted traffic and travellers on the stretch of A9 road through Kanagam Pulliyady junction, and ordered people to keep to the edges of the road for many hours causing great inconvenience to the people using the road, added the sources.

The SLA, scared of attacks, block traffic on roads at will, making people suffer, and Friday's traffic block too caused untold hardships to people travelling along Kandy road, Kankesanthurai road, Point Pedro road in the Jaffna peninsula, said the sources.