One Tamil youth dead, another injured in SLN shooting in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 14:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) cadres shot dead a Tamil youth and seriously injured another, Thursday around 8:30 a.m on the Crow Island beach in Modara police division in Colombo. The SLN allege that when its cadres approached the youths to inquire about their suspicious movement on the beach, the youths attemted to pull their guns resulting in the shooting in self defence by the SLN marines, Modara police said.

Both youths, seriously injured, were rushed to the SLN hospital where one of them succumbed to his wounds, the police added.

The other is being treated at the hospital.

The dead youth was identified as Vinoth, 27 from Pasarai in the upcountry and the injured as Sutharsan, 28, both flower garland sellers in the shops in front of Modara Vishnu temple.

The youths, who are professional garland makers, had come to Modara to make a living, people familiar with the youths said.

The SLN cadres, on seeing the youths on Crow Island beach who had gone there for morning ablutions, had shot the youths from a far and allege that the youths had tried to dislodge their guns from their grip, the sources said.

Though Modara area is an important place for the SLN with their camps in the vicinity providing security to Colombo Harbour, the nearest of such a camp is located 500 meters away from the place where the youths were shot at, added the sources.