Ten Batticaloa traders missing

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Ten milk traders from the western hinterland of Batticaloa who went to collect milk near the Sinhala border yesterday have gone missing said sources in the eastern town.

The men, who had gone to Tampitty (Sinhalised into Tempitiya), a state sponsored Sinhala settlement about 80 kilometers northwest of Batticaloa, are believed to be in the custody of the SLA which has a camp there.

Their relatives who came to Batticaloa today to seek assistance from Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham MP say that they are worried about the fate of the ten men because they might have fallen victim to retaliation in Tampitty for yesterday's bomb blast in Kandy.

The MP is yet to find the whereabouts of the missing milk traders. One of them was identified as Virakesari Siriskantharaja,33, of Pankudaveli, the father of four children.