Grenade attack against SLA prompts massive search operation near Jaffna campus

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 May 2008, 00:20 GMT]
Unidentified armed men lobbed a hand grenade Wednesday night 7:00p.m. targeting a group of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers patrolling along a street in the vicinity of the students hostels of Jaffna university campus and fled the scene prompting the troopers to fire at the attackers and launch a large scale search operation in the area, sources said.

The intensive cordon and search by SLA involving Buffel armoured vechicles and sniffer dogs lasted three hours.

Though the students hostel were said to have been subjected to a the search there was no independent confirmation regarding this.

The Vice chancellor and many other dignitaries were present at the time of search at a location about 100 metres from the university from where the grenade attack is said to have occurred.

No details of SLA casualties were available.

Meanwhile, university authorities remain tight lipped about the incident and have declined to provide details of any arrests made during the search operation