Intelligence operative gunned down
 

BY RASHOMI Silva

AN army intelligence operative and a PLOTE member were killed by unidentified gunmen in two separate incidents in Vavuniya early yesterday.

According to the Army the intelligence operative Raffik Mohammed (41) was on a personal errand in Second Cross street, Vavuniya when he was shot eight times at point blank range by two gunmen on a motorbike. The victim had fallen off the push cycle he was riding while the assailants managed to escape.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission was informed of the incident and Vavuniya magistrate Manickarasaga Ilancheliya had ordered an investigation into the killing.

The Army said the micro pistol, the weapon used in the shooting was of a type commonly used by the LTTE and they have strong reason to believe that the LTTE pistol gang members carried out the act.

Meanwhile a PLOTE member was shot and killed at close range by another suspected LTTE pistol gang member when the he was working inside a partially built house in Thinayakulam, Vavuniya.

The dead man was identified as 45-year-old Gopal Vilwarasa alias Tedis. The shooting also critically wounded a bystander later identified as a 27-year-old English teacher, Sivaras Paradepan. Paradepan who was first admitted to the Vavuniya hospital was later transferred to the Colombo General Hospital, the Army spokesman's office said.