Judge orders CID inquiry into students' killing

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2001, 19:07 GMT]
"Taking into consideration the contradictory evidence given by two police officers and the evidence of the parents of the dead students that they believe their sons were shot and killed by police officials, I direct the C.I.D to take over the investigations into these deaths and submit a report," said Mr. Anton Balasingham in his order delivered Friday at the conclusion of the magisterial inquest. Protests erupted in the town of Kalmunai, 40 kilometres south of Batticaloa, when Muslims angered by the killing of two school students on 13 July in a Police shootout took to the streets. The Special Task Force declared unofficial curfew to quell the protests.

Two Muslim students, Mohamed Aboobukkar Riyaz Mohamed and Mohamed Haniffa Nalim of Sainthamaruthu were allegedly shot dead on 13 July evening near the Kalmunai bus stand by Policemen who had fired indiscriminately after a constable was shot and wounded by a gunman suspected to be a member of the LTTE.

Muslims in the towns of Kalmunai and Sainthamaruthu charge that the Police was responsible for the killing of the students.