Ex-LTTE members shot dead in Valaichenai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 November 2005, 10:54 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Wednesday morning 8:30 a.m. in Kurunchi Nagar in Valaichenai, 32 km north of Batticaloa. The victim, Mr. Sellathamby Punniyamoorthy,26, a father of two children, was kidnapped three days earlier by the assailants suspected to belong to the paramilitary Karuna Group, civilian sources said. Another former member of the LTTE was shot and killed on Monday in Kiran.

The incident took place on Vishnu Temple Road at Pattiyadichenai in Kurunchi Nagar in Valaichenai.

The victim, a resident of Vinayagapuram, Valaichenai, left the LTTE two years ago, sources added.

Valaichenai Police conducting investigations said that the hands of the victim were tied behind his back with a rope. The body was handed over to Valaichenai hospital, police said.

On Monday, another ex-LTTE member, Mr. Kandasamy Sasikumar, 22, from Kiran in Valaichenai, was shot and killed by paramilitary gunmen at 1:30 a.m. Five gunmen entered the house of the victim and took him a few meters away before they shot him.