‘Quality of mercy not strained’: Fifteen young children critically injured with broken joints, burn injuries and bullet wounds, the high price they paid for the crime of defying LTTE to reach safety, are receiving treatment at the Colombo Lady Ridgeway Hospital. All below 10 years, most of these children, 10 boys and five girls have no guardian or parents to look after them. These children say the bus which they traveled to get to liberated areas, with their parents and loved ones, were bombed by the LTTE. Hospital authorities say once fully recovered the children will be handed back to Vauniya and Trincomalee hospitals from where they were transferred to Colombo. The officials will then have to comb the IDP camps to look for their loved ones, actual parents if they are still alive. Doctors said except for a few very critical ones, these children are now on the road to recovery under the care and protection of hospital staff. It is fortunate for them to escape alive, one may say, but their sorry state makes you wonder, if it’s really a blessing to be alive. What is their crime to be punished like this? - Manjula Fernando