Three female Batticaloa students 'disappear'

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Three female students studying in the ninth grade at Kaluthaavalai Mahaviththiyalayam (secondary school), near Kaluvanchikudy, 25 km south of Batticaloa, went missing on May 31 and have not been heard of since, said sources in Batticaloa today.

The parents of the girls complained to the Kaluvanchikudy police, but there are no traces of the missing children as yet said the sources.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence and broadcast over the State run Radio Sri Lanka on May 31, said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had abducted three students from Kaluthaavalai, and that the mother of one of the missing had been admitted to Batticaloa Hospital in a critical condition after consuming poison.

However police sources in Batticaloa said that the identities of the abductors are not known, and denied that the mother of any of the abductees had taken poison.