Police fire guns in hospital

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 July 2000, 11:53 GMT]
Sri Lankan police, who brought the bodies of two of their colleges to the Kaluwanchikudy hospital, fired indiscriminately within the hospital premises, damaging an ambulance parked there said Mr.Pon.Selvarajah, a Member of Parliament for the Batticaloa District. The dead policemen had been killed in attack at Paddiruppu bridge on Monday.

In a letter sent on Tuesday, to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) for the Batticaloa District, the MP has strongly condemned the act of the police personnel and said that it was a violation of internationally recognised humanitarian rules and regulations.

The two policemen were killed when suspected members of the Liberation Tigers fired at a check post at Paddiruppu bridge in Kaluwanchikudy, 35 km. south of Batticaloa, on Monday. Police reinforcements which arrived at the scene fired at random, injuring a civilian who was identified as Samythamby Kopalan,50, of Kovil Porathivu, the MP said.

Later the policemen brought the bodies to the Kaluwanchikudy hospital, continuing to fire at random, the MP alleged in his letter to the SSP. Patients and hospital staffs were panicked by the incident, the MP said further.

In separate incident a young man was reported abducted by unidentified men in plain cloths on Saturday.

Poopalapillai Nantheeswaran,21, was returning home after delivering milk at a milk-collecting centre at the Mannampiddy junction when men in civilian cloths in a white van dragged him into the vehicle and drove away, witnesses said. His relatives have complained to the MP that Sri Lankan security forces were responsible for the abduction.

However, the police and the army have told the relatives that they did not arrest Nantheeswaran.