Civilians foil SLA's attempt to arrest LTTE cadres in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 July 2003, 18:31 GMT]
Tamil Civilians in the Kidachoori area of Vavuniya on Thursday foiled attempts by Sri Lanka Army personnel in civvies to arrest four Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres and take them to the SLA camp, saying one of the cadres was carrying a communication set, sources in Vavuniya said.

On hearing about the incident, Mr. S. Ezhilan, the head of the LTTE’s political division in the Vavuniya district, contacted the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission officers in Vavuniya, who rushed to the area and brought the situation under control, the sources said.

A group of political cadres of the LTTE, 2 men and 2 women, was on its way to Kidachoori from Thandikulam for political activities, when they were stopped by 12 SLA intelligence personnel in civvies, who attempted to confiscate the communication set one of the LTTE cadres was carrying, and a heated argument ensued, sources said.

When unexpectedly civilians in the area gathered, the SLA personnel abandoned their attempt to confiscate the communication set, but attempted to take the LTTE cadres to the SLA camp. The civilians, who had understood the SLA’s plan, protested by preventing the SLA personnel from taking the LTTE cadres and a tense situation arose, which was later defused by SLMM's intervention, the sources said.