Three youths shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 11:32 GMT]
Unidentified armed men abducted three youths from a house at Kiran in Valaichenai police division in Batticaloa district Sunday evening and shot them dead around 7:30 p.m. inside the Christian cemetery on Vishnu Temple road in Kiran. Valaichenai police recovered the bodies blindfolded and hand tieds behind back, and handed them over to Valaichenai District hospital for inquest.

The victims were identified as Veerasingham Senthooran, 22, from Kiran, a student at Batticaloa Technical College, Yoganathan Mayooran, 27, of Vantharumoolai and Namasivayam Puvaneswaran ,24, from Kiran.

Mayooran and Puvaneswaran, both employed in a private insurance company, had come to meet Senthooran at his house from where the armed men abducted the three. Valaichenai Police suspected persons were abducted while they were marketing insurance policies.

Mayooran, originally from Muthukal, a Tamil village in Welikanda, had been living at Vantharumoolai from his childhood, local sources said.

Kiran is situated 25 km north of Batticaloa town.