SLA shoots dead 2 youths in Point Pedro
[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 June 2007, 14:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers shot dead 2 youths Friday evening at Katkoava'lam area in Point Pedro, Vadamaraadchchi. SLA claimed they shot the two youths dead as they tried to escape on encountering their patrol unit and they were Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants. International committee of Red Cross (ICRC) officials visited Manthikai government hospital where the two bodies were handed over Friday night, police officials from Point Pedro said.
The two bodies remained unidentified until Saturday evening. Meanwhile, ICRC officials are to hand over the four bodies, recovered following the battle on Kaangkeasanthu'rai sea, now kept at Jaffna Teaching hospital mortuary, to LTTE, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The bodies of the two youths killed Friday also will be handed over to the LTTE if the bodies are identified as belonging to LTTE cadres, hospital sources said. During the Cease Fire Agreement from 1998 to 2002, the ICRC took the LTTE cadres killed in Jaffna peninsula on boats flying ICRC flags across Kurunakar lagoon to LTTE area and handed them over to LTTE. The same arrangement is expected to be followed in handing over the four bodies recovered earlier, and the bodies of the two killed Friday, if the latter are identified as LTTE cadres, the sources added. ICRC officials are in consultation with the SLA high command and the LTTE regarding the arrangements.
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