Two youths die in SLA truck collision

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 2003, 17:17 GMT]
Mahalingam Lingaruban,21, of Urumpirai and V.Rasakumar,30, of Point Pedro were killed instantly Friday evening around 5 p.m. when a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) truck collided with their motorbike at the Gurunagar water tank junction in Jaffna town, police said.

Tension prevailed in the area when members of the public gathered at the site and prevented the SLA soldiers from removing the bodies of the youths before the magistrate and the police arrived at the site, sources said.

Army soldiers opened fire in the air as the angry crowd continued to block their attempt to remove the bodies, sources said. The soldiers also fired tear gas into the angry crowd as some in the crowd threw stones.

However, a group of army soldiers later handed over the bodies of the youths at the mortuary of the Jaffna teaching hospital. Sri Lanka police officials inspected the bodies of the youths at the hospital mortuary, police said.