Houses damaged in rampage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 January 1999, 22:40 GMT]
Several houses in the village of Kudaththanai south east of Jaffna were smashed up by a gang of youth that had abducted a girl from the area yesterday. The Sri Lankan Police at Pt.Pedro arrested seven youth who were in the gang today and remanded them until January 28. Others are absconding sources said.

A gang of youth from the village of Kudaththanai abducted a girl called Marina (surname withheld) from her residence yesterday.

Hearing the cries of her family and seeing the gang getting away with the struggling girl, a large group of Amban residents had given chase.

The gang, however, had paused its flight to take on its pursuers. In the ensuing clash, the felons of Kudaththanai had taken the upper hand, severely beating up and injuring three Amban residents who had come to the rescue of the abducted girl.

Later, the Kudaththanai gang, bent on heaping insult to injury, had gone to the girl's house and smashed up the place.

Then they went on a rampage in the neighbourhood damaging the houses of the girl's relatives as well. They had also stopped all vehicles coming to Kudaththanai and made them return, under dire threats.

The residents of Amban along with the village officer (GS) of Kudaththanai went to the Pt.Pedro Police station this morning and lodged a complaint about the abduction, injury and damage to property caused by the Kudaththanai youth gang.

The girl was released later in the day by her captors, among whom was the girl's cousin.

She told the TamilNet's Vadamaradchi correspondent who met her this morning that the Kudaththanai gang had tried to drown her in the sea after stuffing her mouth with cloth.

She was absolutely shaken by her experience and was unable to expand on the reasons behind the fracas that shocked the residents of Amban and Kudaththanai yesterday.

Sources said that the girl was planning to go abroad to settle down in a western country.

Some residents lamented that such calamities had been unheard of in the area for more than a decade.

"If this is what they mean by restoring normalcy in Jaffna, we do not want any of it" said an angry school teacher from Amban who was affected by the clashes.