Names of Tigers killed in Sri Lanka Navy attack released

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 July 2003, 12:30 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Saturday announced the names of 11 officers who were killed at mid sea when Sri Lanka Navy attacked their oil tanker vessel last month. The Liberation Tigers charged that the attack was unprovoked. They said the SLN’s action was illegal because their merchant vessel was sailing in international waters off the island’s northeast coast.

Controversy surrounded the incident when the Sri Lankan President claimed that she had ordered the SLN to sink the vessel while the country’s Defence Minister said he was not aware of the order.

The LTTE oil tanker MT Shoshin was attacked and sunk by SLN on the morning of 14.06.2003. The Tigers, in a complaint to the Sri Lanka monitoring Mission, said their merchant vessel was sailing 265 nautical miles off the island's East coast when it was surrounded and attacked by five SLN gunboats.

The Liberation Tigers, in the list of their sea dead released Saturday, said that one of their followers, described as a patriot, was also killed when the ship was attacked and sunk by the SLN.

Following is the list of LTTE officers and the sailor who were killed in the SLN attack:

1. Lt. Col. Anpukumaran (Vallipuram Sivakumar- Sreethar Road, Aathikoilady, Valvettithurai)

2. Lt. Col. Senthamil (Veeramani) (Sinnarasah Sivaroopan- Vettilaikerni, Jaffna)

3. Lt. Col. Kathir (Selvaratnam Sasitharan – Meesalai South, Chavakachcheri)

4. Lt. Col. Gajendran (Nallaiah Krishnan Kapil Dinesh- No. 59 Jeyapuram, Kilinochchi)

5. Maj. Nirmalan (Ranarajah Ragunath – Nediyakaadu, Valvettithurai)

6. Maj. Kanniya Naadaan ( Ponnambalam Kirupaharan – Peraalai, Pallai)

7. Maj. Valluvan (Thurairatnam Saileswaran - Mayilankaady, Erlaalai, Jaffna)

8. Maj. Nimal (Thangarasa Selvakumar – Paranthan)

9. Maj. Maniyarasan (Muthulingam Lavakumar - Vincent Road, Nedunkerni, Mullaithivu)

10. Maj. Veeranathan (Thiyagarajah Thayanithi – Mullai Road, Mankulam)

11. Capt. Cheliyan (Sokkalingam Jegan – Uthayanagar, Kilinochchi)

12. Mr. Mohan (Naranthanai, Kayts – displaced in Thevipuram Junction, Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaithivu)

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