Two civilians killed in SLN ambush

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2000, 17:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel lying in ambush in Iqbal Nagar, north of Trincomalee shot and killed two Tamil civilians around 5 p.m. Wednesday. The victims, Shanmugaraja Swarnahasan and Mahalingam Thamiran, were returning to their village, Gopalapuram, on a motorbike from Trincomalee town when they shot at, sources said.

Their bodies are lying at the mortuary of the Trincomalee base hospital.

Iqbal Nagar is muslim village near Nilaveli on the Uppuveli-Kuchchaveli road, 10 km. north of the eastern port town of Trincomalee.

Meanwhile, a Human Rights activist in Trincomalee told TamilNet that an attempt is being made to claim that the dead persons are members of the Liberation Tigers.

On receipt of information about the killing, a team of the International Committee of the Red Cross rushed to the scene of the incident, sources said.

On 22 November four villagers who went for fishing in a lagoon were shot dead by SLN personnel at Gopalapuram. One of the victims, Thamiran was actively involved in organising a protest against the killings of these villagers, informed sources said.