SLA troops kill youth, abduct farmers

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2000, 18:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka army troops on a deep penetration operation in the north-western hinterland of the Batticaloa district shot dead a youth on night watch in a paddy field and abducted nine farmers who were in the area Thursday night around 8.30 p.m. Relatives of the abducted farmers said that the SLA troops had come from Welikanda into the Maanikkam Vayal Kandam, a tract of rice fields in the hinterland about 85 kilometers northwest of Batticaloa. The general area of Welikanda in the Sinhala majority Polannaruwa district lies close to the north-western sector of Batticaloa.

Thiyagarajah Sinnarajah, 17, of Paalchenai, a coastal village 72 kilometers north of Batticaloa, was shot dead by the SLA troops while he was on night watch in a rice field in the Maanikkam Vayal Kandam.

The fate of the nine farmers abducted by the SLA is unknown relatives said. The farmers abducted from Manikkam Vayal Kandam last night by the SLA are:

1.Veluppillai Sivalingam, 55

2.Sivalingam Pulenthiran, 23

3.Kailayapillai Vijayan, 16

4.Sinnapillai Raveenthiran, 34

5.Muththaiah Rathinam, 36

6.Velan Kathirkamathamby, 56

These farmers are from the village of Puchchaakerni, near Kathiraveli, 79 kilometers north of Batticaloa by the coast.

7.Kanapathipillai Mylvaganam, 42 of Paalchenai, near Kathiraveli.

8.Velayuthan Navarathinam, 45 of Puththur in Kathiraveli

9.Shanmugam Ekamparam, 28 also of Puththur.