Grenade wounds Raazeek member

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 January 1999, 13:04 GMT]
A member of the Raazeek group operating with the Sri Lankan army in Batticaloa was critically wounded when an unidentified person lobbed a grenade at him today around 12.45 p.m. in Puthoor, a suburb of the Batticaloa town.

The youth who lobbed the grenade was also wounded and was arrested by the Sri Lankan Police in the area.

The wounded Raazeek cadre, Sellathurai Ravi, is from the village of Karadiyan Aaru north west of Batticaloa.

He had earlier been a member of the PLOTE and had then worked with the TELO before joining the Raazeek group.

The Police refused to divulge the name of the youth who lobbed the grenade.

But ex-Tamil militant sources in Batticaloa said that he had been a member of the PLOTE in the past.

He had left that group last year and was living in Navatkaadu, village west of Batticaloa in the hinterland which is under the control of the Liberation Tigers.

They said it was not clear whether he had joined the Tigers or had attacked Ravi for personal reasons.