2ND LEAD (Correction)

Pillayan's former media coordinator shot in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 September 2008, 15:14 GMT]
Unidentified armed men opened fire on a 35-year-old Radhika Thevakumar, a former media coordinator of Pillayan, the TMVP paramilitary leader and the chief minister of Eastern Province, seriously wounding her Monday around 7:45 p.m. The shooting took place when she went to a pharmacy at Kalladi, police said. The victim, a teacher by profession, was also a journalist who worked at Sri Lanka's state-owned Thinakaran earlier.

Armed persons came in a motorbike fired at her. Two bullets struck her abdomen and had been admitted in the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital. She was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as her condition was critical.

Media sources in Batticaloa were not aware of any dissent nor exact reason for her distance with the paramilitary in the recent weeks.

She was earlier awarded by Pillayan.

Ms. Radhika was on vacation for some time from her teaching post, informed sources further added.