2ND LEAD

Students protest over death, tension in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2005, 06:44 GMT]
Tension prevailed in Jaffna town after a school girl was knocked down dead by a speeding Sri Lanka army vehicle Friday morning. Hundreds of students and teachers from Vembady Girls' Scool blocked traffic in protest following the accident. A group of civilians in the neighbourhood who joined the students' protest attempted to set fire to a Sri Lanka Air Force vehicle. Shops closed as SLA deployed hundreds of additional troops in the tense town around noon Friday. Around 1.45 p.m. a group of protestors set fire to a Sri Lanka army sentry at Catapult Junction in Kandar Madam, near Jaffna University.

The twelve year old school girl Nagendiram Dushika was crossing Hospital Road in Jaffna town when she was kocked down by a speeding military vehicle Friday morning.

She was pronounced dead when she was admitted to Jaffna hospital.

Dushika is from Manipay in Jaffna and was a grade 7 student at Vembady Girls' School in Jaffna town.