Worshipper shot dead

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 1998, 18:50 GMT]
A youth was shot dead in the early hours of the morning today while going home from the annual festival of the Thraupathai Amman temple at Paandirippu, about 40 kilometers south of Batticaloa. The youth was identified as Sithamparanathan Roopathaas, 17.

Giving evidence at the inquest into the boy's death today, his uncle, Ponnambalam Sakthivel, said that he heard gun shots around 3 a.m. in the morning today near his house on Somanathar street in Paandiruppu.

Soon after Roopathaas had come screaming in pain to his house with a gaping bullet wound in the left side of his stomach.

Sakthivel said he had seen some commandos of the Special Task Force (STF) standing near his gate.

Roopathaas died while be rushed to the Batticaloa hospital.