Teacher, 5 students injured in bomb explosion in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 February 2007, 16:33 GMT]
Five students including two girls, and a teacher were injured in a bomb explosion around 4:15 p.m Wednesday, in front of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry post, which guards the Main Office of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) in the old Srithar theatre, located in the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Jaffna town. SLA said that a hand grenade lobbed into the sentry, missed its mark, landed in front of the sentry and exploded. Eyewitnesses and the injured, however, said that no one had lobbed the hand grenade into the SLA sentry post.

The SLA sentry post is located at the junction at Navalar road-Old railway crossing junction, behind the EPDP main office.

The persons injured in the attack are:

• P. Muhunthan, 33, teacher from Annaikottai, Jaffna.
• V. Gowritharan, 19, of Madam Street, Kantharmadam, Jaffna.
• R. Janakan, 17, of Jaffna town.
• M. Sinthuja, 19, of KKS road, Jaffna.
• G. Thanusha, 18, of Vannarpannai, Jaffna.
• T. Thamonuthan, 17, Point Pedro Road, Jaffna.
  
  

The injured were rushed to Jaffna Teaching hospital.

The SLA said no one of them was injured in the attack.

An attack on a guarded SLA sentry post within the HSZ is highly improbable as every person entering the said area are subjected to thorough check by SLA troopers and this raises strong suspicions, civil society sources in Jaffna said.

The Teacher and the students had finished their class at the private education centre near the SLA sentry post and were on their way home when the explosion took place.