News in Brief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
SLA shell kills teacher and daughter, Jaffna traders want free TV discussion on package and SLA barricade removed in Jaffna

SLA shell kills teacher and daughter in Valaichenai

A music teacher and her thirteen year old daughter died on the spot last evening -Oct.31- near Valaichenai twenty five miles north of Batticaloa when a shell fired from an SLA camp in the area fell and exploded on the van in which they were travelling. A family friend who was driving the vehicle was also killed.

The teacher's husband and another daughter and two friends who were in the van sustained severe injuries.

The ill fated van had come through the volatile Valaichenai area where the Liberation Tigers and the SLA engage in mortar duels and firefights almost daily late in the evening when normally there is no traffic on the road.

The Valaichenai SLA fires mortar shells at random into villages dominated by the LTTE in the western hinterland of the Batticaloa district.

Hundreds of people in the Valaichenai - Kiran region , north of Batticaloa have been killed and maimed this year by stray and deliberate shells of the SLA.

Hundreds of homes and two refugee camps in and around Valaichenai have been hit by the shells.

---

Jaffna traders want free TV discussion on package

The Sri Lankan national TV has invited the Jaffna Traders Association for a discussion on the PA's devolution package tomorrow in Jaffna town.

The will be recorded by a unit of the Rupavahini (the state owned TV station) which flew to Jaffna today.

The program for has been arranged by the Jaffna town brigade commander.

The secretary of the Traders Association Mr.Namasivayam, according to a source, has requested that the participants should be able to freely express their views at this discussion.

---

'Periyakadai' barricade removed

The army removed the barricade it had put up at the Bazaar street (Periya Kadai) KKS road junction yesterday.

The concertina wound barricade was constructed soon after the army took the Jaffna. As this was in the business heart of the town, traders and people were greatly inconvenienced by the barricade.

This is the latest to be removed by the army in recent weeks.