SLA to bar soldiers' night prowl

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 September 2003, 20:31 GMT]
In the wake of protests against an attempted rape of a housewife by a Sri Lanka Army soldier in the Manalkadu village in the Vadamaradchi east division, the Sri Lanka Army Thursday gave an assurance that its soldiers would not be allowed to move out of camps in the village after 7 p.m. to avoid soldiers' misbehavior with women, civil sources said.

The SLA assurance follows an agitation campaign by the villagers obstructing the main entrance of the Sri Lanka Navy camp located in the area in protest against the recent rape attempt, the sources said.

In that attempted rape incident, the housewife who was alone on the day of incident had overpowered the SLA soldier when he attempted to rape her and assaulted him with available implements in the house. The soldier in question took to his heels and sought refuge in his camp when the people of village chased him, sources said.

The SLA officials who visited the place where the incident had taken place have asked the villagers to report to senior SLA officials if they came to know of any suspicious movement of soldiers in the area. The errant soldiers would be dealt with sternly if they were found guilty, SLA officials said.

Meanwhile, another incident in which an attempted rape by a SLA soldier was foiled, was reported at Inbaruty last Saturday, civil sources said.

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