Valaichenai shelling kills one

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A man was killed on the spot and his four year old daughter was seriously wounded last night around 7.30 p.m. when the Valaichenai Police fired shells into the Puthukkudiyiruppu village.

The dead man was identified as V. Thayalakumar, 35 and his four year old daughter as Theenuja.

The father and child had been seated out in the garden of their house when a shell had landed there.

The TamilNet correspondent said that the little girl has been admitted to the Valaichenai hospital and that the Police mortar fire was unprovoked.

Civilians in the Valaichenai have been continuously subjected to shelling from the SLA camps which dot the locality.

There are about ten Sri Lankan army camps in and around the Valaichenai junction, highlighting the importance of the Main Supply Route (MSR) to the Sri Lankan garrison in Batticaloa town.