2ND LEAD

Three LTTE cadres killed, five injured in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 September 2005, 09:29 GMT]
Three Liberation Tigers cadres were killed when a group of armed men wearing military fatigues raided a sentry post at Kattumurivu inside Liberation Tigers controlled Vaharai area Tuesday morning around 8:45 a.m. Five cadres were injured in the raid, according to LTTE officials in Sampoor. Meanwhile, SLA sources in Welikanda told local reporters that a 40 mm grenade launcher, four T-56 rifles, ten grenades, two claymore mines and three LTTE uniform kits were captured by the attackers, claiming that the raid was carried out by "Mangalan Master", a Karuna loyalist.

The LTTE cadres killed in the raid were: Mr. Sutharalingam Sinnarasa (Vinoth) from Iralkuli, Muttur, Mr. Pathmanathan Senthuran (Sarangan) from 6th Mile Post, Periyankulam, Nilaveli and Mr. Nagaratnam Sivathasan (Siva), Athiyamman Kovil Road, Kiliveddy.

The bodies of the killed cadres are being kept at Sampoor Political office of the LTTE, sources added.

The LTTE officials alleged that the raid was carried out by a heavily armed group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers and said that the attackers retreated to the Sri Lanka Army garrison in Singapura, 3 km west of Kattumurivu which is located between Vaharai and Kathiraveli.

Liberation Tigers accuse the Sri Lanka army for employing Karuna loyalist cadres as paramilitary cadres in the remote interior villages on the Polannaruwa-Batticaloa border to carry out a proxy war against them in the east.

A paramilitary camp at Theevuchenai, an interior hamlet near the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border, in the SLA-held area of the Polonnaruwa district was exposed by the Sunday Leader, a Colombo-based English newspaper, in March this year.

The Sri Lanka army (SLA) spokesman in Colombo denied the Sunday Leader report.

A few days later, on 21 March, three paramilitary cadres of the Karuna Group, including 'Mangalan Master' were wounded in a predawn attack in Theevuchenai by gunmen suspected to be Liberation Tigers. The wounded paramilitary cadres were admitted to Polannaruwa Base Hospital.

There are sixteen SLA camps between Batticaloa and Welikanda – a distance of about 60 kilometres.

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