Batticaloa youth shot dead

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army at Morakottanchenai, about 22 kilometers north of Batticaloa, shot dead a youth this morning around 10 a.m. whom it claimed was a member of the Liberation Tigers.

The SLA said a patrol on the interior road had shot the youth behind the Sittandy Murugan Temple, when he had attempted to run away on seeing the soldiers.

It claimed that it had recovered a grenade from him.`The body was brought to the Eravur hospital and arrangements have been made to hand it over to the Liberation Tigers tomorrow.

The bodies of several youth who have been shot dead in the Batticaloa district by the Sri Lankan security forces in the past as suspected members of the Liberation Tigers and sent to the organisation's offices through the ICRC have been rejected by the LTTE often on the grounds that these were civilians and not their members.

Meanwhile in Pandirippu, about 30 kilometers south of Batticaloa, unidentified persons have cut and destroyed all overground telephone lines and set fire to underground terminals late last night.

The incident took place on the Pandiruppu -Maruthamunai border. The former is a large Tamil village, a suburb of the Kalmunai town and the latter is a populous Muslim village.