Embargo violators fired at

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 October 1999, 20:10 GMT]
A young man was killed and another wounded off the coast of Pallivaasalpiddy in the Mannar island around midnight yesterday, when unidentified gun men fired at group of illegal traders attempting to smuggle banned goods to LTTE held areas of Vanni, sources said.

The dead man is identified as Sinnathamby Raveendran,25, a displaced person from Iyakkachi in the Jaffna peninsula. He had sought refuge at Vaddakandal in the Mannar district.

The wounded, R.K.Kumar, is warded at the Vavuniya hospital.

Mannar Magistrate, M.Ilancheliyan has ordered the Police to produce statements from Officers in Charge of the Police post at the 'BMC building' and Sunny Village as witnesses.

Sources said these are the two nearest Police bases to the place where the body of Sinnathamby Raveendran was found.

Sinnathamby Raveendran was released on bail by the Mannar District Courts on October 5 in suspected case of smuggling banned items into the LTTE held areas the sources added.

Meanwhile three more bodies were washed ashore on Kayts island off the Jaffna peninsula today, sources said.

S.A.E.Ekanathan, the Kayts Magistrate visited the scene today and ordered the police to hand over the bodies at the Jaffna hospital.

Yesterday, decomposed bodies of three males were washed ashore in Mandaithivu, an island east of Jaffna Town.

The police said the bodies were believed to be of the Liberation Tigers.

They said a metal identification plate typically used by the Tigers was recovered.

The bodies, believed to be between 20 and 35 years, were handed over at the Jaffna hospital.