Frustrated troops destroy property

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 December 1998, 10:09 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Army (SLA) burnt a grocery and barbershop last night in Kannankiramam, a village on the outskirts of Valaichenai, 32 kilometers north of Batticaloa.

Sources said that troops from the Valaichenai fisheries harbour camp had gone to the village upon receiving information that the Liberation Tigers were in the grocery and the barber shop.

When they had not found any Tigers, however, the troops had set fire to the shops and on their way back to the camp some of the soldiers had burnt the thatch on fences in the neighbouring village of Puthukkudiyiruppu.

Meanwhile, a civilian was seriously wounded near Maancholai in the same general area last night when military trained Police at the sentry post there opened fire indiscriminately into the village.