Paramilitaries set fire to Tamil paper newsstand in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 August 2006, 11:27 GMT]
A paper distributor's shop located in the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Batticaloa town was completely burnt early morning Saturday, sources from Batticaloa said. Muruges and Son Stores which is on the Batticaloa Central Road was 75 meters from the Special Task Force (STF) troopers camp next to the Batticaloa Clock Tower. Batticaloa residents allege the shop was burnt by paramilitaries working in collaboration with the SLA. Paramilitary cadres have warned paper distributors to cancel two mainstream papers, Sudar Oli and Thinakkural, published in Colombo in Batticaloa Sri Lanka Army controlled areas. Meanwhile, Batticaloa Police said they suspected electric short caused the fire.

Tamil dailies printed and published in Colombo, is brought to the Batticaloa distributor every day early morning by Surena Travels, a passenger carrying private bus that plies daily between Colombo and Batticaloa, sources said.

The damage caused to the shop was estimated at SLR 400 000.

Paramilitaries collaborating with the SLA have threatened the owner of Surena Travels not to deliver to Muruges and Son Stores, Sudaroli and Thinakural news papers alleging they were pro-LTTE, said Batticaloa sources.

Batticaloa police and residents have put out the fire but the shop is completely gutted by fire, sources added.