Police sentry point ambushed in Kebiththigollewa

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 July 2008, 04:20 GMT]
A sentry point of the Sri Lankan Police, located at 'Y' junction along Kebiththigollewa - Vavuniyaa main road came under ambush in the early hours of Friday. A Special Task Force (STF) commando was injured in the attack. The attack continued for about 20 minutes from 4:00 a.m., according police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara, Senior Superintendent Police (SSP).
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SLAF attacks paddy fields again, civilian wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 July 2008, 06:25 GMT]
A 24-year-old man, father of two, was wounded Tuesday morning when two Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Kugnchup-paranthan and the adjacent paddy fields along Paranthan - Poonakari (Pooneryn) road. TamilNet correspondent who visited the attack site said that the bombardment has caused extensive damage to the agricultural lands in the 5th canal. The road was also damaged in the attack. The SLAF bombers came again in the afternoon and attacked the same area with deep bombs leaving large craters.
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381 IDPs resettled in Moothoor villages

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 July 2008, 15:52 GMT]
A batch of three hundred and eighty one members of 114 families displaced from Moothoor East in 2006 to Batticaloa district were brought down Saturday by fourteen buses escorted by the Sri Lankan police via Vaakarai and resettled in their villages, Iththiku'lam, Thangkanakar and Sreenivaasapuram in Pa'l'likkudiyiruppu GS area in the Moothoor DS division in Trincomalee district.
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Abducted restaurant owner released

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 14:31 GMT]
The owner of a restaurant abducted June 30 Monday night from Paduvaankarai within Palugaamam police division in Batticaloa district was released early morning Thursday, sources said.
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SLA, STF, police accused of sexual harassment in Aaraiyampathi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 14:01 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops, Special Task Force (STF) commandos, and policemen who visit homes in Aaraiyampathi area during daytime for interrogation, elicit information about men in the family, and visit the homes that do not have any males, on pretext of night patrol, subjecting widows and women to sexual harassment, residents in Aaraiyampathi in Kaaththaankudi police division in Batticaloa district said. The victims do not complain to the police or speak of their suffering due to fear of being killed by the troops and policemen.
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Treatment delayed to Aayiththiyamalai injured

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 03:46 GMT]
More than a hundred civilians, including women and children, assaulted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and policemen during the joint cordon and search operation following the claymore attack 23 June killing 3 policemen in Aayiththiyamalai, are continuing to be admitted to hospitals, sources in Batticaloa said. The injured civilians were first not allowed to go to hospitals, while the ICRC officials who went to the area to assess the situation were also sent back by the SLA troops and the police, residents of the area said.
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3 policemen killed in Claymore attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 June 2008, 18:31 GMT]
A Claymore attack targeting policemen of Aayithiyamalai police station in Batticaloa district, Monday around 6:15 p.m. killed 3 policemen and seriously injured another, Aayiththiyamalai police said. A Claymore device hidden in the thickets close to the place where policemen from Aayithiyamalai police station go for bath was activated by unknown men, the police added.
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3 Tamils abducted, youth reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2008, 13:40 GMT]
Unidentified armed men in civil clothes abducted Wednesday around 10:30 p.m. the manager of a lodge in Kotahena while a family man was abducted the same night by a gang of armed men arriving at his house in Kotahena. In the third abduction, three men in police uniform and one in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) uniform abducted Monday an elderly man from his house in Wattala, sources in Colombo said. Meanwhile, a Tamil youth from Kotahena is reported missing from his home since Tuesday, according to the complaint made by his relatives to Kottahena police.
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TMVP councilor, assistant shot dead

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2008, 09:53 GMT]
Two TMVP Pillayan group operatives including the deputy chairman of Ma'nmunai Then Eruvilpattu Piratheasa Chapai (Pradeshiya Sabah) were killed Monday in Eruvil, 35 km south of Batticaloa when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them.
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28 SLA killed, 52 wounded in Mannaar, Vavuniyaa - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2008, 20:56 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials on Friday said they confronted Sri Lanka Army in Mannaar and Vavuniyaa fronts throughout the day thwarting the repeated attempts by the SLA to advance into LTTE territory. A ground movement by the SLA from Ma'likaiththidal towards Theanudaiyaan in Mannaar, launched at 5:30 a.m. Friday was defeated around 12:40 p.m. 25 SLA soldiers were killed when they again launched the move at 1:00 p.m. 47 SLA soldiers were wounded in the confrontation that lasted till 6:15 p.m. when the SLA was pushed back, the Tigers said. Meanwhile, 3 SLA soldiers were killed in a confrontation that lasted for 90 minutes from 4:10 p.m.
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Teacher shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2008, 14:57 GMT]
Unidentified armed men, following a teacher who was riding on his motorcycle towards Jaffna Railway Station through a small lane near Aariyaku’lam in Jaffna town, gunned him down Wednesday around 1:00 p.m and escaped from the area, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops were present only hundred meters at the main base of SLA 512 Division.
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Abducted female students produced in Vaazhaicheanai courts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 14:25 GMT]
Two teenage female students of Naamakal Viththiyaalayam, Kalkudaa in Batticaloa district, abducted early march by paramilitary operatives in white van and released on 15 May, were produced by police Friday in Vaazhaicheanai courts, legal sources in Batticaloa said.
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16 civilians killed in DPU attack in Vanni, 5 children, 7 females among victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2008, 10:10 GMT]
16 civilians, including 5 children, three girls and two boys, were killed in a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) Claymore attack that targeted a Hiace van returning from Akkaraayan hospital to Ki'linochchi on Mu'rika'ndi - Akkaraayan Road Friday around 2:15 p.m., reports from Ki'linochchi said. The SLA on Friday stepped up DPU attacks in LTTE controlled Vanni as the region was observing a national mourning day following the demise of LTTE's Senior Commander Brigadier Balraj.
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Remains of Fr. Karunaratnam interred in Vavunikku’lam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 19:10 GMT]
Thousands of people stood in tearful reverence when the remains of Rev. Father M X Karunaratnam, the chairman of the NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), slain in a Claymore attack by a Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army on Sunday, were interred in Vavunikku’lam Annai Vea’laangka’n’ni church cemetery Tuesday evening.
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Jaffna Saivites observe Chiththirai Paruvam rites

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 April 2008, 12:05 GMT]
Saivites in Jaffna peninsula in their thousands observed Chiththirai Pa'ruvam (April Full moon day rites) in which offerings are made to one’s late mother, by bathing in 'holy waters'. It was observed with significance in Villu'ndi Theerththakea'ni near Jaffna town and Oo'ra'ni Theerththakea'ni in Valveddiththu'rai.
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15-year-old girl killed in SLAF airstrike

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 April 2008, 07:26 GMT]
A 15-year-old girl was killed Thursday morning around 6:30 a.m. when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Punnaineeraaviyadi in Visuvamadu in Mullaiththeevu district, according to Tamileelam Police.
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Resettlement of Allaippiddi IDPs begins

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 April 2008, 18:27 GMT]
Thirteen families of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Allaipiddi, the islet village where 13 civilians were massacred by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in May 2006, have been resettled in Allaippiddi in the first stage of resettlement, according to Jaffna Secretariat. 65 more families are ready to return to Allaippiddi and to occupy houses built for them with the help of World Vision, International and local NGOs and they will be resettled on Monday, Jaffna Government Agent announced. Education Department officials in the islet are making arrangement to reopen Paraasakthi Maha Viththiyalam, the only school in Allaippiddi.
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Liberate Calendar

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 April 2008, 23:57 GMT]
A Calendar is conceived and designed by logic and astronomy rather than emotions and myths of politics. If people don’t understand the calendar they follow, educate them. If any section of the society thinks that the calendar is its prerogative, liberate the calendar, rather than mutilating it or abandoning it. If there is any problem in the calendar it has to be investigated and corrected by a forum of astronomers, climatologists and environmental scientists, sitting along with traditional astronomers historians and Tamil scholars. Any society, which doesn’t care to investigate and understand its own heritage of science, is not going to make any progress. It will always remain in slavery.
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Tamil New Year

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 April 2008, 02:30 GMT]
The Tamil New Year day falls on Sunday, 13th April, since 2008 is a leap year. On other years, it is 14th April. It is not only the Tamil New year, but also the New Year of Sinhalese and Malayalis. It is not appropriate to call it a Hindu New Year since vast majority of Hindus in India don't celebrate it a New Year. It is only an auspicious day called Mesha-samkraanti for them. But, the Sikhs celebrate it a New Year. It is equally inappropriate to call it a Buddhist New Year, as Buddhists don’t celebrate it universally. The calculation for the commencement of this New Year and the calendar based on it are entirely astronomical.
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15 SLA killed, heavy fighting in Mannaar - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 17:20 GMT]
Heavy fighting ensued between the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam and the Sri Lanka Army Tuesday from 5:30 a.m. till 11:00 a.m. when the SLA stationed in Iththikka'ndal attempted to break into LTTE held territory in Ka'rukkaayk-ku'lam with Tanks and heavy artillery barrage and mortar attacks. 15 SLA soldiers were killed and 25 wounded, LTTE's Operations Command in Mannaar told media in Vanni.
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