SLA, SLN uniforms, weapons recovered from Jaffna EPDA office

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 February 2003, 12:20 GMT]
Police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Sunday morning forcibly opened the abandoned office of the Eelam People Democratic Alliance (EPDA), a breakaway group of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) at Vembadi area in the heart of Jaffna town and recovered weapons and uniforms belonging to State armed forces, police sources said.

The Police said raid the was conducted on information received from the people of the area. Seven T56 rifles, 740 live bullets, one grenade, a communication set and three uniforms (one Sri Lanka Navy, two Sri Lanka Army) had been recovered in the operation, Headquarters Inspector of Jaffna Police Mr.S.K. Ananda Seneviratne told local journalists.

The breakaway group of the para military Eelam Peoples Democratic Party led by two former parliamentarians Mr.S.Ramamoorthy and Mr.S.Rameswaran later formed a new party called Eelam Peoples Democratic Alliance two years ago.

With the ceasefire agreement signed by the United National Front (UNF) Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in February last year Mr.Ramamoorthy left the country to India. His brother Mr.Rameswaran also left for India few weeks back leaving the Jaffna office closed, sources said.

HQI of Jaffna Police said he has appointed a special committee to inquire into the recovery of navy and army uniforms and weapons in the abandoned EPDA office.He did not know how the uniforms of the government troops got into the hands of this para military political group, sources said

Tension prevailed in the Jaffna town for a while when the raid was conducted, civil sources said.