Abducted fishermen escapes terror clutches under fire, 3 killed and
3 injured
Sri Lanka army today (March 26) rescued 8 Sinhalese
fishermen who had braved to escape LTTE hold in Vishvamadhu, in
Mullaitivu. According to the defence sources in Vavuniya, a group of
people were detected inside a jungle patch 3 Km east of Omanthai Entry
Exit point, while trying to come out of the jungle under heavy small
arms fire by LTTE terrorists. Troops acting immediately beaten off the
terrorists and managed to rescue 8 people alive, said the sources.
Later, it has been found that three members of the
same group were killed in the terrorists' fire. Also, three of the
rescued suffered injuries and were rushed to the General Hospital
Vavuniya, the sources said.
The unhurt escapees have told the security forces that
they were a group of 14 Sinhalese fisherman who had been abducted by the
LTTE terrorists while engaged in fishing at 20 Nautical Miles East of Puttlama and Kalpitiya on 10 February and 2 March 2007.
According to Army sources, the terrorists had first
taken the abductees to Arippu by force and kept them under servitude in
LTTE camps in the Vishwamadu area in Mullaitivu District. The group of
fishermen who were residents of Tangalle, Kalpitiya and Negambo areas
had to live under cruel and inhuman treatments in the hands of LTTE
terrorists for over 13 months until the terrorist power started to
deteriorate in the face of successful military operation by the security
forces. A week ago, the abductees had escaped the terror clutches and
braved thick jungles for over 70km to reach Omanthai this afternoon.
The sources said that two of the victims lost their
lives on the way. One of them had fallen prey to a man eating crocodile
and the other succumbed to injuries much later due to pestering wounds
he had received in the same crocodile attack.
Once the abductees had reached Omanthai , a group of
terrorists had opened fire at them killing three of them until army
soldiers came to their rescue , said the sources.
The incident has been notified to the ICRC and the
police is conducting further investigations, the sources added. |
