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by Ranga Jayasuriya

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission's Batticaloa office has launched an investigation into the alleged murder of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF)'s Pooratheivu Pradeshiya Sabha member Poobalapillai Alagathurai.

Alagathurai's body was found in Mandoor lake last Sunday. His post mortem was to be held yesterday, police said.

"Two LTTE members Mylvaganam Paramanathan and Ramaiah Rasukutty alias Rajan took Alagathurai away forcibly for a discussion on December 16," EPRLF Jaffna Municipal Council member T. Subathiran told the Daily News.

He said Alagathurai was abducted after he refused to comply with a written order from the LTTE to resign from the council.

Meanwhile, wives of nine men who they said were abducted and held in LTTE custody yesterday called on the Government and the SLMM to mediate for their release.

"Our husbands were the full time members of various political parties. After the recent cease-fire between the Government and the LTTE they carried out their political activities in a democratic way with the full belief that the LTTE will not harm them. Taking use of this opportunity, the LTTE had taken them by force and kept them in their custody," the appeal said.

The abducted are Arumugam Soundarajah, Anthony Cleri, Poopalapillai Alagathurai (deceased), Chelliah Kandasamy, Vijayanathan Vidiyakaran, Sellathurai Thankarajah, Nagarajah Nesarajah, Kandasamy Gnanasothy and Savarimuthu Mathivathanan.

Four woodcutters in Welikanda have been abducted yesterday morning, a SLMM spokesman said.

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