Elderly teashop owner shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 September 2007, 19:38 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot dead an elderly teashop owner Friday around 5:45 p.m in Kaithadi, an area under Sri Lanka Army (SLA) surveillance 24 hours, in his teashop located close to A9 land route to Jaffna.

The victim was identified as Chelliah Jeyabalasingham, 61, a resident of Kaithadi north in Thenmaraadchi.

The area where Jeyabalasingham was killed is patrolled night and day by the SLA troops and the shooting could not have escaped their notice, sources in Kaithadi said.

Sri Lanka Army backed gunmen in Thenmaraadchi shot killed four civilians, including a Village Officer (GS) on 13 August in Kaithadi.

The SLA, during the offensive in Kaithadi in 1996, took more than 35 youths from Kaithadi for interrogation.

Most of the arrested have gone missing since then, Kaithadi residents said.