SLA troopers kill two civilians following grenade attack

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2006, 00:40 GMT]
Contrary to claims by Sri Lanka Military sources that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers shot dead two LTTE cadres in Urumpirai after a grenade attack on the SLA sentry at 3.00 p.m Tuesday, investigations conducted at the scene, the same night by Additional Magistrate Mr. Srinithi Nandasekeran revealed that the two men killed were innocent civilians, legal sources said.

The two civilians were killed when SLA troopers began firing indiscriminately for more than 5 minutes following a hand grenade attack on soldiers patrolling the Jaffna Palaly Road near Urumpirai that seriously wounded one soldier.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission has been notified about this.

The two men were riding in separate motorcycles in opposite directions and have been identified as Balasingam Sujendran, 34, of Mallakam and Kanesh Selvakumar, 27, of Alaveddi.

Their IDs along with clothing that they were wearing were collected as evidence by Mr. Nandasekeran.

The bodies were taken to the Jaffna general hospital for examination.

The area has been cordoned off and the road closed for traffic as SLA soldiers and the police are searching the area.