2ND LEAD

Fisherman's body washed ashore in Mullaithivu, one missing

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 February 2007, 14:49 GMT]
The dead body of a fisherman who was reported missing with another fisherman in Mullathivu since Saturday, washed ashore at Koriyadi in Vetrilaikeni in Vadamaradchi east Monday morning.. Sri Lanka Navy gunboats had fired at the fishermen around 2:30 a.m. Saturday in the seas off Mullaithivu.

The victim, Sivananthan Suresh, 32, father of a child, displaced from Maruthankerny in Vadamaradchi East, was missing with fellow fisherman Karunaharan Jegatheeswaran, 22, from Vathirayan north in Thlayady in Vadamaradchi east.

Both were Internally Displaced Persons from Vadamaradchi East due to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensives and presently living in Puthumathalan in Mullaithivu, according to the Tamileelam Police Officer in Charge at Maruthankeni, N. Perinpan.

The decomposed body, with gunshot wounds in chest, was taken to Kilinochchi Hospital by Thileepan Medical Service and handed over to the family.

Suresh and Jegatheeswaran had not returned home from the sea until Friday and fellow fishermen went looking for them in the Mathalan sea.

The fishermen who had gone searching for the two missing fishermen were able to find only their fishing net and not their boat with the outboard engine worth more than two hundred thousand rupees.