Army deserters arrested for entering Yala sanctuary

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 July 2008, 02:10 GMT]
Six deserters of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were arrested by the SLA soldiers and Wild Life department officials when they were entering the Yala sanctuary which has been declared out of bound for civilians due to security reasons, sources said.



Several army and police checkpoints have been established to prevent outsiders entering the Yala sanctuary following the attack on civilians and buses carrying passengers along Buttala –Kathirkaamam road.

The government security establishment suspects the LTTE cadres are behind such attacks. Hence they tighten the security of the sanctuary.

On Friday the security forces and wild officials arrested six army deserters stealthily entering the sanctuary with shot guns and other weapons for hunting, police sources said.

Tissamaharagama Magistrate ordered remand when they were produced in court Friday.