SLA blocks Vaharai students from taking Scholarship test

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2006, 22:12 GMT]
Despite arrangements made with the help of UNICEF for the students to sit the Fifth year State Scholarship Examination. SLA troopers at Mankerny and Cadjuwatte SLA camps stopped the teachers taking question papers and the students from proceeding to Vaharai, Batticaloa Education officials said Saturday.

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) heavy artillery and mortar fire on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam held Vaharai continuously from Friday 5:30 p.m to Saturday 9:30 a.m obstructed the 250 Internally displaced students from Trincomalee on their way to sit for the examination at Vaharai Saturday morning, school officials said.

The SLA soldiers from Mankerny camp stopped the teachers carrying the question papers to Vaharai examination centre at 9:00 a.m but later allowed them around 10.45 a.m when Education officials from Batticaloa explained the urgency of the papers to reach examination centers.

But, the SLA troopers at the Cadjuwatte camp warned the teachers that they were not responsible for the safety of the teachers and students going into LTTE held area.

After the teachers and students had gone about 100 meters from the Cadjuwatte SLA camp, a mortar shell launched by the SLA fell near them and exploded, causing all of them to return to Batticaloa town.