Grenades lobbed at office of Jaffna daily

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 August 1999, 16:38 GMT]
Two grenades were lobbed at the office of the only Tamil daily in Jaffna, the Uthayan, this evening around 8.30 p.m. A security guard , S.Selvarajah, was wounded and two cars parked in the shed behind the office were damaged by the explosion, the paper's assistant general manager Nadesapillai Vithiyatharan told TamilNet.

Police sources in Jaffna said that a Tamil paramilitary group whose activities in the peninsula had been criticised by the paper recently may have been behind the attack.

The grenades were lobbed into the back yard of the Uthyan office said a journalist on night duty there today.

The attackers appear to have come along the KKS road which borders the back yard of the office he said.

The Uthayan premises are on Kasturiyar Road in Jaffna town. Soldiers from the army units in the neighbourhood had come to inquire about the explosions the journalist said.