Two killed, Muslim town tense

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2001, 13:31 GMT]
Oddamavadi, a Muslim town 34 kilometres north of Batticaloa, was tense Wednesday as following the murder of two cattle herders allegedly by Sri Lanka army soldiers from the Naavaladi camp. Shops in the Oddamavadi bazaar were shut down in protest Wednesday. The two men, Noor Mohammed Abdul Latif, 35, and Seeni Mohammdhu Sareef, 43, were taken out of their huts by armed men close to midnight and were beaten and shot to death, relatives said. The identity card of a SLA soldier and an army cap were found near the place where the bodies of the two herders lay this morning. A crowd that gathered round the bodies of the two herders Wednesday morning abused and attempted to assault SLA personnel who went to conduct inquiries at the scene of the murder.

Relatives said that the two men were murdered by soldiers from the SLA camp at Naavaladi, 3 kilometres from Oddamavadi.

A vehicle belonging to a Sinhalese was stoned while passing through Oddamavadi this morning.

The Batticaloa District Medical Officer, Dr.S.Thadchanamoorthy, said in his report that Noor Mohammed Abdul Latif death had occurred when his brains were smashed due to his head being hit with a sharp weapon. Seeni Mohammdhu Sareef's had been killed when he was shot in the head, according to the DMO.

The two men's huts are about 500 meters from the Naavaladi camp. Relatives said that the soldiers had tried to take the two men into the shrub jungle nearby with the intent of killing them and leaving their bodies there to make in appear that others were responsible for the murder.

The bodies of the two men are now at the Valaichenai hospital.