Thavadi residents foil attempted rape by SLA soldier

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 May 2004, 17:37 GMT]
Residents of Thavadi village in the Valigamam division of the Jaffna district Wednesday night rescued a Tamil girl from being sexually assaulted by a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army. The suspect soldier is one of the army personnel manning a checkpoint close to the victim’s house, civil sources said.

According to a complaint made to the Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka (HRCSL), the girl was staying with her parents in the house on the day of incident. The girl raised cries when a soldier from the army checkpoint had entered her house during night and tried to sexually assault her. The suspected soldier had fled to his camp on seeing a group of residents who rushed to the scene.

Later, the said soldier had gone to the site with fellow army personnel and had threatened the residents of the area not to make any complaint regarding the incident. However some residents had informed the Jaffna regional office of the HRCSL.

The HRCSL officials in Jaffna immediately brought this notice of the SLA. SLA officials of the area have now commenced an investigation into the alleged incident, sources said.