SLA arrested youth found dead in Trincomalee suburb

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 June 2006, 08:28 GMT]
The body of one of the three Tamil youths arrested by soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) during the cordon and search operation held Sunday evening was recovered with cut and gunshot injuries Monday morning along cemetery road in Bharathipuram, a suburb of east port town in the Uppuveli Police Division, civil sources said. The body has been identified as belonging to Baskaran, a mason by profession, from Kanniya Road, Anpuvallipuram. The whereabouts of other two civilians arrested by the SLA were not known, civil sources said.

The SLA troopers conducted a house-to house search operation Sunday afternoon following a grenade attack near the public market in Gandhi Nagar in Anpuvallipuram area. No one was hurt in that incident.

However, civil sources alleged that SLA soldiers had assaulted several Tamil residents asking them to come out side of their houses. They were then ordered to sit down on the middle of road.

In the meantime, residents of Anpuvallipuram, Bharathipuram, Gandhi Nagar and other Tamil settlements in the area are reportedly fleeing to safe areas. Civil sources said members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee had told the residents during their visit to the area Friday evening that SLMM was not in a position to ensure security for them.

Shops and other institutions in these areas have put up their shutters Monday and Tamil schools closed due to prevailing tension, sources said.