Armed Muslim youths attack Amparai factory workers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2004, 12:44 GMT]
Wednesday at 1.30pm, about 10 Muslim youths in Nainakadu, Sammanthurai in Amparai district attacked Tamil workers and Muslim owners in a brick factory and forced them to flee the workplace, security sources in Amparai said.

Neary thirty tamil workers from the nearby village of Veeramunai are employed in the brick factory owned by four Muslim residents of Nainakadu.

The armed youths shouted that the Tamil workers are all members of the Liberation Tigers and threatened the Muslim owners of severe punishment if they continued to employ the Tamil workers, said a worker who fled the scene.

Sources in Amparai said that there has been a marked increase in the activities of armed Muslim youths against Tamil civilians.

In 1990, Tamil families from Veeramunai were displaced when youths from surrounding Muslim villages entered Veeramunai and set fire to houses after attacking the Tamil residents. The displaced families gradually returned to rebuild and resettle in their old lands.