Protest against Police atrocity in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2001, 16:33 GMT]
More than a hundred people demonstrated against the Sri Lanka Police in Eravur, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa Wednesday, for indiscriminately shelling and firing on a Tamil neighbourhood Tuesday night, killing five persons, including an 11 year old boy, and wounding nine civilians. The protestors stood with the coffins of three persons who were killed in the incident across the main road in Eravur around 5 p.m., blocking traffic for more than half an hour.

Six houses were damaged by shells fired by the Police on the Tamil neighbourhood. "You make us buy arrack and betel and make us work for you. Then you kill our families. Is it because we were born Tamil?" the protestors cried.

Protestors on the main road in Eravur carrying the coffins of the people killed in the indiscriminate shelling and firing by Police on the Tamil neighbourhood of the eastern town. Photo:TamilNet

Selvanayagam Yoganayaki, 36, was observing the Kandashashti fast in the shrine room of her house when shells fired by the military trained Police in the area blew her to pieces. A couple and one of their daughters were killed in another house. Two children survived.

Residents said that eleven persons in a house in Division 5 of Eravur escaped death because shells had slid off a plank on the roof.

"Neither the Police in Batticaloa nor the Sri Lankan government have ordered an inquiry into the incident so far," said a lawyer from the area.



Houses damaged by the shelling and blood stained sections of the damaged houses.