EPDP knifes shopkeeper, Delft tense

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 October 2002, 12:04 GMT]
Tension prevailed in Delft (Neduntheevu) Sunday as locals prevented a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lanka army and Navy from landing on the island southwest of Jaffna. Angry islanders smashed the paramilitary’s office in Delft and set fire to office furniture after armed members of the group knifed a local shopkeeper during an altercation Saturday night. The islanders stoned a boat carrying the paramilitary’s cadres that had tried to go ashore Sunday morning.

The condition of Mr. Kandapillai Loganathan, 50, the person who was attacked by the paramilitary group, EPDP, is serious.

Sources from Delft told TamilNet that EPDP cadres had chased an inebriated local following a heated argument with him at their office last night. The man had run into the shop of Loganathan to escape his pursuers. The armed EPDP cadres had, however, turned their wrath on the shopkeeper with whom they had had a dispute in the past, according to the sources.

Angry islanders had gathered in front of the EPDP office in Delft Saturday night as word spread that Loganathan was attacked and seriously wounded by the paramilitary’s cadres, demanding justice. The crowd had later turned unruly when the EPDP had attempted to leave the office and had smashed the building and its parapet. Sections of the crowd had also set fire to everything inside the office.

Thereafter the islanders had kept vigil through the night to prevent the EPDP from retaliating on them. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Jaffna went to the island Sunday to investigate the matter, mission sources said.