Indiscriminate felling of Palmyra palms by SLA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 February 2009, 18:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been engaged in felling thousands of Palmyra palms mostly in private lands in the SLA occupied High Security Zone (HSZ) using the trunks to construct additional sentry posts along Vadamaraadchi coasts, in the last three days, sources from Vadamaraadchi said. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Vadamaraadchi north has been conducting war rehearsals during Wednesday and Thursday nights firing artillery shells towards the sea using illumination, local residents said.

New SLA sentry posts are being erected along the coast from Tho’ndaimaanaa’ru to Point Pedro in Vadamaraadchi as well as from Myliddi to Maathakal in the HSZ in Valikaamam North, strengthening security positions.

Meanwhile, SLN is engaged in war rehearsal exercise from its bases in Paruththiththu’rai Munai area in Vadamaraadchi North from Wednesday night directing artillery fire towards the sea.

Sea Tiger boats are said to have been sighted on Naakarkoayil seas recently, according to SLN sources in Jaffna.

Fortifying security positions along the coasts by SLA and SLN in the recent days has raised fears among the residents of the peninsula.

SLA had already begun erecting new check and control posts in Jaffna peninsula in addition to intensifying checking along the roads.