Thenmaradchchi civilians assault EPDP members

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 16:14 GMT]
Members of the public Tuesday evening assaulted a group of members of the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), which works closely with the Sri Lanka Army, when they were engaged in distributing handbills with the assistance of soldiers of the SLA at the common market in Kodikamam in the Thenmaradchchi division of the Jaffna district. The EPDP cadres later complained to the SLA officials that some persons had assaulted them, police said.

The EPDP members who arrived at several places in the Vadamaradchchi and Thenmaradchchi divisions with the SLA in the latter’s armored vehicles Tuesday had engaged in distributing handbills with articles criticizing the LTTE and the Maveerar (Heroes’ Day) speech of the LTTE leader, Mr.V. Pirapaharan.

The EPDP members faced a hostile crowd of people when they arrived at the Kodikamam market junction Tuesday evening around 5 p.m. and started distributing anti-LTTE handbills. A crowd of people gathered at the site had started assaulting the EPDP members when the latter threatened the civilians who refused to accept the handbills. Thereafter, the EPDP members took to their heels and had sought refuge in the nearby SLA camp, civil sources said.

Later, some SLA soldiers were seen distributing the handbills brought by the EPDP members to civilians, civil sources said.