2ND LEAD

Sri Lanka army SF suspected in murder of civilians – LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 March 2005, 15:23 GMT]
Two civilians were knifed to death Saturday night in the Kudumbimalai area, about forty kilometres northwest of Batticaloa, a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers said. “We strongly suspect the hand of Sri Lanka army Special Forces in the murder. Evidence points in that direction. The two men were persons who had volunteered from the Sithaandy village to help us stop the plunder of sand and timber from their area”, he said. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) claimed Sunday that six were killed in clashes between LTTE troopers and a paramilitary group in Batticaloa on Saturday.

The dead civilians are Mr. Aarumugam Nagalingam and Mr. Sivalingam Paskaralingam.

“They send their Special Forces to kill. As soon as they hear from the SF and paramilitaries, they begin concocting psy-ops stuff to feed the gullible Sinhala media in the south. In due course truth and time will bury this type of amateurish information war the SLA is trying to wage on us”, the LTTE spokesman said, asked about the SLA’s statement.

He said that two LTTE troopers, 'Puhalamuthan' and Iraimaran', were killed earlier in the day on Saturday when the vehicle in which they were traveling met with a serious accident at Koolavady, about 36 kilometres northwest of Batticaloa.