Police fire hits Vavuniya civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
One child was killed and two others were wounded when Sri Lankan police opened fire indiscriminately in a suburb of Vavuniya town at around 6.00pm today. The incident occurred at the Madasami Koiladi in Vairavapuliyankulam.

Sri Lankan police had arrived in the area at about 5.30 this evening, to conduct a surprise search operation.

The police have taken to conducting such surprise search operations following reports that Liberation Tigers are operating in the area. In such operations, people are asked to produce their identity cards and their permits for staying in Vavuniya.

During the operation today, the police claim that they had asked a youth working at a radio repair shop in the area for his permit.

The police claim that the youth had pulled out a pistol instead of a permit, and shot at them. The police opened fire indiscriminately in retaliation.

Kuberan Kajanan, 4 who had come with his family from Nuwaraeliya (in the hill country) yesterday for a wedding tomorrow, was killed instantly when police fire hit him.

Two students from the local school, Ganeshan Vijeraj and Kajan Ramachandran, both aged 14 were wounded by the police fire and have been admitted to Vavuniya hospital.

Later in the evening, the police claimed that they had found a body in a nearby tank (reservoir). They say that it is that of the youth who had shot at them and got away. The police say that a pistol and a grenade were found near the body.

But other sources in Vavuniya said that the body may be that of another civilian who may have been hit by the police fire.