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23-03-2006

LTTE proxies in armed vehicle robberies remanded

BATTICALOA: Policemen swiftly moved in and arrested five LTTE proxies involved in a spate of armed robberies of vehicles while all five of them, disguised as 'military personnel' tried to rob one more vehicle on the highway in the Kattankudy area in Batticaloa.

Those five suspects in military type uniforms who were also provided two T-56 weapons, two magazines containing 58 rounds of live ammunition,one pistol, one hand grenade by the LTTE, told the Police during interrogations that the LTTE wanted them to rob vehicles from the Batticaloa area and smuggle them into the un-cleared areas.

They further admitted to having robbed one lorry, four vans, one motorcycle and a few more valuables earlier from the Kattandudy area and taken them into un-cleared areas on the orders of the LTTE.

Two more associates identified as Puchi and A. Jegadeeshwari are still evading the police arrest, according to the arrested suspects.

Meanwhile one more teenager who was forcibly detained by the LTTE after he was ordered to visit the un-cleared areas in the Wanni on 15 March has run away from the LTTE training camp at Palai and surrendered to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office at the entry/exit point in Muhamalai on Tuesday around 3.45 p.m.

According to the nineteen-year old escapee from the Jaffna area LTTE men detained him in the un-cleared areas in the Wanni after he was summoned by the LTTE for reasons best known only to those LTTE men.

The teenager claimed that he was afterwards detained at the Palai LTTE training camp until he ran away with another minor around the same age but some of those LTTE men went on opening fire at them while fleeing. However, the victim escaped unhurt but his other colleague fell down following LTTE gunfire and was apparently injured during their escape.

The fear-stricken and excited minor however managed to reach the Muhamalai entry/exit point in search of security for his life and reported the incident to the ICRC.

The ICRC officials handed over the minor to the Muhamalai Police post for further investigations and other onward actions. He was later handed over to the Kodikamam Police station.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was informed.

Source-Daily News