3RD LEAD

SL military operatives attack ITAK meeting in Ki'linochchi, 20 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 March 2013, 08:04 GMT]
Four Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, Mavai Senathirajah, S. Sritharan, E. Saravanapavan and MA Sumanthiran, who visited Ki'linochchi Saturday for a meeting at Sritharan MP's office, were besieged by a Sinhala mob, numbering more than 100, that attacked the meeting at 11:00 a.m. The alleged SL military intelligence operatives, carrying Lion flags, were shouting slogans against the TNA and were pelting stones on the public meeting. 20 people have sustained injuries. The public providing security to the TNA parliamentarians caught two of the Sinhala attackers. However, the SL police, who came to the site 75 minutes after the report of the attack, allowed the two alleged military personnel to walk free without detaining them for investigations. The brutal assault has been carried out in a similar fashion as the attack reported at Thellippazhai in Jaffna in June 2011.

Five of the injured people have been admitted at Ki'linochchi hospital.

The attacking group, stormed the site from all the four directions, started to pelt stones at the meeting and at the vehicles parked outside.

The SL Police came to the site only after 12:15 p.m.

TNA Spokesperson Suresh Premachandran MP, who convened a press conference at Jaffna Press Club, immediately after the initial reports, blamed SL military intelligence for the attack.

The meeting by TNA parliamentarians are continuing their meeting from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

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