Abducted mill worker shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 October 2006, 09:54 GMT]
A rice mill employee abducted by unknown gunmen Wednesday around 6.00 p.m at Vinayagapuram in the Valaichenai police division in Batticaloa, was found dead with bullet wounds Thursday morning around 3.00 a.m at 4th Cross street, Kanakipuram in Vinayagapuram, said Valaichenai police.

Balasubramaniam Suthaharan, 24, of Ootuchenai, Vadamunai, was an employee at the rice mill at Kaduruwella in Polannaruwa.

Suthaharan, a married man, fled in fear to his realtives house in Vinayagapuram from his home in Vadamunai on the border of Polanaruwa district, a village in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled area where the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers clashed in January 2006, said his relatives.

On Wednesday, Suthaharan attended to some personal business at a bank around 2.00 p.m., visited his grandmother in Vinayagapuram and was returning to his residence at 6:00 p.m. when the gunmen abducted him.

Police believe that Suthaharan's abduction may be linked to information the killers may have gathered from earlier abductees. Many youths have been abducted in Batticaloa in the last few months.