EPDP abducts UNP polling agents

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 October 2000, 06:29 GMT]
The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), the chief Tamil ally of the People's Alliance, abducted 19 polling agents of the United National Party (UNP) at Kayts in Jaffna while they were on their way to polling booths in the island.

The abducted polling agents have been detained by the pro-government group in one of its fortified camps in the area said the UNP's chief candidate for Jaffna, Mr T. Maheswaran.

He said that the Police has not taken any action to release his polling agents despite a complaint lodged by him soon after the abduction.

Mr.Maheswaran, a leading trader and shipping agent in Jaffna, said that heavily armed cadres of the EPDP had stopped the lorry (41 Sri 3460) in which the polling agents were traveling this morning at Kayts junction and abducted them. Some of them were assaulted, he alleged.

The lorry and its driver released by the EPDP later in the morning. The UNP charged that its polling agents have been abducted by the EPDP so that it can freely engage in rigging the polls in Kayts.