Tigers take SLA uniforms, shoot soldiers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 14:40 GMT]
Two gunmen, suspected to be Tigers, shot at a Sri Lanka army patrol last evening in Puthur in Jaffna, wounding two soldiers in the ensuing fire fight. A Policeman was shot dead around 4 p.m. today on Aadiyapaatham street in Kalviankaadu, near Jaffna town.

Two armed youth entered a tailor's shop near the Puthur junction in Jaffna yesterday around 4.30 p.m. and checked out the SLA uniforms that had been made there for soldiers deployed in the area. They had worn the uniforms that fitted them and had set out on the road when an SLA patrol had come upon the scene.

Sri Lankan army security forces personnel make uniforms to suit their person in tailoring shops in many parts of the north and east of the island that are under giovernment control. Military sources said that although uniforms are issued only by the army, there was no strict observance of the rule in some parts of the north and east.

Sources in the area said that there was a shoot out following this. An unconfirmed report indicated that a soldier was killed in the gun battle. The army later searched the Puthur junction and its neighbourhoods but the two Tigers had left the area by then sources said.

Meanwhile, Police sources in Jaffna town said that the Policeman who was killed in Kalviankaadu today was shot by a lone gunman suspected to be a Tiger operative.