Hills said quiet, tense

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2000, 17:14 GMT]
Shops and schools remained closed and there was little traffic on the main roads in Sri Lanka's tea producing Nuwara Eliya district as thousands of Tamil plantation workers went on strike. The Sri Lankan government Tuesday cancelled all leave for Police personnel in view of the situation. Meanwhile, one person was reported killed and another critically injured when the Police opened fire on a group of Tamils in Boralanda town in the Haputale area Monday evening and arrested eighteen of them.

Police in Haputale said that they were compelled to open fire to disperse more than hundred Tamils armed with clubs and knives who were attacking Sinhala owned shops, houses and vehicles in the town of Boralanda.

However, a Tamil trade union leader in Haputale charged that the Police was concealing the truth and victimising the Tamils. He said that the Tamils in Boralanda were armed to deter Sinhala mobs from attacking them, like in other incidents in the past two days.

Meanwhile a few isolated incidents of violence were reported Tuesday in the Nuwara Eliya district although the situation still remains tense Police said.