PLOTE - EPDP tension in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 May 1999, 23:05 GMT]
An EPDP member and his wife were seriously wounded when they were assaulted by armed PLOTE cadres in Batticaloa at around 6.15 p.m. this evening.

According to the couple, they were assaulted by a group of 6 PLOTE cadres led by the group's Batticaloa organiser, Rangan, while they were returning from a birthday party.

The EPDP member, Perinparajah and his wife, Chanthirakala, have been admitted at the Batticaloa hospital.

Perinparajah was previously a member of the PLOTE but joined the EPDP two months ago.

Sources in Batticaloa said that the relationship between the two groups is tense and all EPDP cadres from outstations have been called to the Batticaloa camp.

Meanwhile a Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed when the Liberation Tigers lobbed a grenade at a SLA patrol in Iyakkachchi, north of Elephant Pass in the Jaffna peninsula on Friday night.

SLA sources said that one LTTE member was killed when the soldiers retaliated.

The body of a LTTE member and a grenade were recovered, the sources added.