Tamil fisherman wounded in navy firing

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 May 2002, 17:40 GMT]
A Tamil youth was Friday admitted to the Trincomalee general hospital with gunshot injuries in his stomach. Thirty five year old Vilvarajah Jeyakanthan of Thirukdaloor, a fishing hamlet made a complaint to the local Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that was shot and wounded by some navy personnel while he was fishing with two of his colleagues Friday morning around 9.30 a.m. in the Trincomalee sea close to Koneswaram temple, sources said.

An emergency operation was performed on him Friday evening to remove a bullet from his stomach.

The youth who is the father of three children is now reported to be out of danger, medical sources said.

The wounded fisherman's colleagues, Nallathamby Arunakirinathan and Gunaratnam Jeyaseelan, escaped injuries when Navy personnel who were patrolling the sea in a speedboat fired indiscriminately on seeing the fishing boat, sources said.