Family man shot dead in Pungkudutheevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 October 2007, 21:12 GMT]
Two unknown armed men on a motorcycle shot dead a family man Wednesday around 7:00 p.m during curfew hours in the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Pungkudutheevu, an islet of Jaffna under the exclusive control of the SLN.

The victim was identified as Kanapathipillai Pathmanathan, 52.

Pathmanathan was shot killed in an area surrounded by SLN camps.

A 21-year-old girl student on her way to attend classes in a private educational institute had gone missing since Sunday after going through the SLN camp area to the institute.

The killing has further increased the fear and tension in Pungkudutheevu, already affected by the disappearance of the young female student.

The disappearance has also raised the spectre of rape and murder of a young wife of a Saiva temple priest, Sarathambal Saravanabavanantha Kurukal, 29, who was gang-raped and murdered near Kannakai Amman Temple in Pungkudutheevu in December 1999.

Pungudutheevu SLN camp gained notoriety after the incident as villagers accused the SLN soldiers for Sarathambal's rape and murder, the brutality of which shocked the entire Tamil community.