News in Brief:

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 1999, 13:16 GMT]
A Sri Lankan Army soldier (SLA) was killed in a clash with the Liberation Tigers in Irupalai in Jaffna yesterday; Tigers hand over body of a SLA soldier to ICRC; Young woman wounded in army fire; Youth reported missing in Jaffna and released youth detained again in Colombo.

One SLA soldier killed

A Sri Lankan Army soldier was killed in a clash with the Liberation Tigers at Irupalai junction in Jaffna yesterday around 2.30 p.m. Further details of the clash are not known.

Meanwhile the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) has arrested 6 people in Jaffna in connection with the killing of its Jaffna commander on Sunday.

The PLOTE leader, Thillainathan Chandramohan,31, alias Satheesh, was shot dead in Jaffna town by the Liberation Tigers.

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Tigers hand over the body of a SLA soldier

The Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said that the body of the SLA soldier recovered by the Liberation Tigers during the confrontation in the Mankulam area on Saturday was handed over to officials of the ICRC in Mallavi in the Vanni region yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, the Liberation Tigers have said that the four youth shot dead by the SLA last Thursday at the 14 th mile post along the Trincomalee - Pulmoddai Road were not their members and refused to take charge of the bodies.

Sources in Trincomalee believe that those killed in the above incident must be civilians. They said the Tigers would not have refused to take charge of the bodies if they were of their members.

The bodies are lying at the Padaviya hospital sources added.

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Young woman wounded

Sathyalingam Manjula, 23, was wounded by gun fire from a Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldier in Punnalaikkadduvan in Jaffna yesterday around 5.30 p.m.

The Army said that she was wounded by accidental fire from a soldier on sentry duty at the road side.

The woman has been admitted to the Jaffna hospital.

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Youth reported missing

Tharmalingam Ketheeswaran, 23, an employee at the Jaffna Hospital's building division has been reported missing since January 23.

His father informed the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna that Ketheeswaran had not returned home from work.

Meanwhile the Chairman of the HRC in Jaffna., Mr. S. Sreetharan, has requsted assistance from the ICRC to trace a youth, Subramanium Suthaharan, 23, who has been reported missing from Karuppattamurippu in the Vanni since 1997.

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Released youth arrested again

Nagarajah Mathanarajah, 21, who was arrested by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) in Kaithady in Jaffna in October last year and released recently by the Anuradhapura magistrate has been arrested again in Colombo.

Nagarajah, employed at the Palmyrah Development Board in Colombo, was arrested by the SLA during a search operation on January 18.

He is detained at the Welikkadde prison in Colombo.