5 teens abducted in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 19:37 GMT]
Unidentified armed men abducted four students from Vipulananthapuram, Mylambavely and another youth from Savukkady, Thalavai in Eravur Police division in Batticaloa district around 7:30 am Tuesday while they were unloading stones for road works, civil sources said. Parents of abducted youths have lodged complaints at Eravur Police and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Thayaparan Alphons, 14, Arulanantham Mathan, 16, Thambirasa Sugumar, 16, and Santhiran Pirasath, 18, who are studying for G.C.E. O/L the second time work as laborers to supplement the income of their parents. All are from families living below the poverty line, civil sources said. The fifth youth, a friend who had visited the site in a bicycle to talk, was also abducted.

Unidentified persons carrying weapons had come to the site in a van where the students were working along the Savukkady road, and abducted the youths.

The road the youths were repairing was destroyed by tsunami in December 2004.

People who displaced long ago from border village Pullumalai were resettled in Vipulananthapuram, which is 16 km northeast of Batticaloa.

Chronology: