SLA soldiers assault Tamil civilians in Vadamarachchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2003, 16:33 GMT]
A group of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army, located in the historic Vallipuram Alvar Temple area in Vadamarachchi division in Jaffna district, is alleged to have mercilessly assaulted and fired at a group of Tamil civilians who had gone for hare hunting Saturday evening, injuring several of them. Later the SLA soldiers arrested seven of the Tamil group and released them after questioning, civil sources said.

Mr. Mahendran Manmatharajah (24) of Thunnaalai south and Mr. Ramasamy Sathiyakumar (23) both from Kudavathai, have been admitted at the Point Pedro base hospital in critical condition for emergency treatment, medical sources said.

Two boys, Thuraisingham Rajanikanthan (15), Thevaraj Raj (15) and Mahendran Matheeswaran (14) have been admitted at a private medical institution with minor injuries, sources said.

Thereafter, a group of army soldiers had gone to the houses of the injured and warned the inmates not to admit the injured to hospitals and to make complaints in regard to the incident to any one, civil sources said.

Meanwhile, army officials are reported to have invited some members of the public to identify the suspected soldiers who had assaulted the civilians, sources said.

However, affected persons have brought this incident to the notice of the LTTE's Jaffna district political secretariat, sources said.