Two civilians shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 June 2006, 17:44 GMT]
Two separately abducted Batticaloa residents, Kanthasamy Thavarajah, 20, and Shanmugam Jeyaratnam, 39, were shot and killed by their abductors, in two different locations at Santhiveli, 19 km north of Batticaloa Town, and Vinayagapuram, 32 km north of Batticaloa town, on Thursday police sources said.

Rice mill worker Thavarajah, a resident of Palaiyadithorna in Santhiveli, and a father of a 16 day-old-baby, was shot dead early morning, 500 meters from the nearby Jeevapuram railway station. He was abducted at a bus stop, while waiting to catch a bus to take him to work in a rice mill in Akkaraipattu.

Thavarajah's body has been transferred to Eravur hospital and police are carrying out investigations.

Jeevaratnam, a cow-herder, was shot in the head and killed, Thursady morning at around 7:10 a.m., near the local Vinayakapuram school in Kalmadu Road, police sources said.

Jeevaratnam's body has been taken to Valaichchenai hospital and police are investigating.

Paramilitaries working with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) forces abducted, around 125 Tamil children in white vans, last week in Santhivali, Kiran, Valaichenai, Pethalai, Vinayakapuram, Kannakipuram, pattiyadichenai, Kalkudah and Mankerny, sources said.