SLA cordon, search Thumpalai area

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 January 2006, 10:26 GMT]
Lourdes Mary Catholic Church area in Thumpalai, Point Pedro was cordoned off and house-to-house search conducted by more than 500 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, sources from Point-Pedro said. Residents of the area were not allowed to getout of their houses and vehicular traffic was blocked from entering or leaving the area during the search operation.

Harassment of civilian population especially during the period leading up to the talks between the Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka will impact the peace talks, warned Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Jaffna district, Mr Sivanesan.