Eight fishermen remanded in Mannar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 04:07 GMT]
Eight fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy in the sea off Pesalai in the Mannar Island Thursday. Meanwhile in Jaffna, three Sri Lanka Army soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack in Allaarai in the Thenmaradchi division Thursday night. A woman soldier at the SLA’s Nagar Kovil garrison in Jaffna committed suicide Thursday by taking an overdose of sleeping pills, military sources in the north said. The soldier had been depressed, they added.

The Pesalai Police produced the eight Mannar fishermen who were arrested before the Mannar judge Mr. M.H.M Ajmeer Friday. The judge remanded them until 23 November. The Police alleged that the eight were engaged in smuggling cement and fuel to the Vanni.

The transport of most essential goods, including building material, fuel, fertilisers, bicycle spare parts etc., is banned under the decade long economic embargo imposed by the Sri Lankan government on the Vanni and several parts of the eastern province.

The soldiers who were wounded in Jaffna Thursday had been on a foot patrol near the Allarai Amman temple when a grenade was lobbed at them. The SLA which searched the area later said that they had given chase to a suspect in the area and that he, a youth, had committed suicide by exploding a grenade. The SLA claimed he was a member of the Liberation Tigers.

However, the SLA did not hand over the youth’s body to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital Friday as directed by Chavakachcheri magistrate Mr. Annalingam Premshankar who visited the scene of the incident and conducted inquiries earlier in the day. The youth has not been identified so far, sources said.