Tamil Tigers gun down 3 civilians and a social worker as fighting escalates in Northern Sri Lanka

Mar 25, Colombo: Three Tamil civilians were shot dead by a suspected Tiger pistol gang today in broad day light near the Hatton National Bank in Jaffna, the military said. The men were in a tea boutique when two suspected LTTE cadres on a motorcycle fired at them.

The three men were identified as Soosaithaas Thanaraaj (19), Arulraaj Jeyantharoopan (26) and Yoakalingkam Chaarangkan (23). Jaffna Police is conducting investigations into the triple murder.

Meanwhile in the Eastern town of Batticaloa, a prominent social worker and a People Alliance organizer was shot dead by suspected Tiger pistol gang members.

Kandapudi Subharathnam (77) was gunned down opposite his residence at Eruvil, Kalawanchikudi by assailants who came on bicycles. Kalawanchikudi Police is investigating the murder.

A soldier was killed and three others were injured when LTTE launched mortar fire at Sri Lankan Army troops at Periyakulam in Mannar last night, the military said. Retaliatory fire from the troops inflicted heavy casualties to the attackers, the military added.

In another incident Army troops manning the Northern Forward Defence Line (FDL) at Muhamalai gunned down three LTTE terrorists yesterday.

Troops fired small arms in the morning at an LTTE cadre who had attempted to infiltrate into the Muhamalai FDL. The inflitrator was killed and his body was observed lying on the no man's land, the military said.

On the same day noon another two LTTE cadres believed to be on a reconnaissance mission were gunned down by the troops at a separate location on the Muhamalai FDL. Escalalted fighting in Sri Lanka's north and east since Thursday killed more than 50 fighters from both sides.