Civilians wounded by SLA shelling

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Three civilians were wounded in Valaichenai 30 km north of Batticaloa when the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelled the densely populated Tamil areas of the town from the Fisheries Harbour Camp around 10 p.m. last night.

The three persons have been identified as S. Nadesan (46) and his wife T Thavamani (45) and their neighbour V .Paakiavathi.

This follows incidents last week where boys catching fish in the Valaichenai lagoon were wounded by indiscriminate small arms fire by the SLA.

Civilian casualties have been high in this area as a consequence of the military tension which pervades the strategic Valaichenai junction.

There are about ten Sri Lankan army camps in and around the Valaichenai junction, highlighting the importance of the Main Supply Route (MSR) to the Sri Lankan garrison in Batticaloa town.

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