Soldiers suspended for staging bogus attack

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 February 1999, 20:45 GMT]
Twenty soldiers of an army detachment at Vilgamvehera, 6 miles north of Tricomalee along Anuradhapura trunk road, have been suspended by the SLA for misleading the district brigade that the Liberation Tigers had attacked their camp on February 12, sources said.

The soldiers staged a mock attack, firing live bullets and exploding grenades to make their high command beleive that the Tigers had actually tried to overrun the camp.

In this feigned attack an officer and a soldier were injured by the live ammunition fired by the SLA soldiers who had stage managed the drama. The wounded army personnel were admitted to Trincomalee hospital and later transferred to Anuradhapura.

The officers and soldiers involved in the fake attack had hidden away weapons from the camp's armoury and reported to the Trincomalee brigade HQ that the attacking Liberation Tigers had removed them.

SLA investigators later found the guns and ammunition concealed in a building in the detachment.

The SLA has begun an inquiry into the incident. The Military Police and the Upuveli Police yesterday recorded the statements of the two, who are at Anuradhapura hospital.

The army interdicted the 20 soldiers involved in staging the bogus Tiger attack were interdicted following this said sources.

The motive behind the drama could have been the desire to sell the weapons for great profit in Colombo's underworld said an SLA source.