Intelligence officer shot dead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Suspected members of the Liberation Tigers shot dead a soldier attached to the SLA's military intelligence unit in Batticaloa this morning around 8.30 a.m. in the village of Kommathurai, about 19 kilometers north of the eastern town. The dead soldier is a Tamil youth identified as S. Ravichandran.

Sources said that he was working for the SLA military intelligence mainly to gather information about the Liberation Tigers in the Batticaloa's western hinterland which is under their control.

Ravichandran is from the village of Illuppadichenai which is about 10 kilometers to the west of Kommathurai in the region controlled by the LTTE.

Sources said that although the killing was near the Kommathurai army camp, a group of heavily armed PLOTE cadres operating with the SLA had go to retrieve Ravichandran's body from the spot where he was shot dead as the army had been reluctant to move out.

His body was brought to the Batticaloa hospital two hours later. Ravichandran's body will be handed over to the military intelligence once the formalities are over said hospital sources in Batticaloa.