Chronology of LTTE terror- Part 42

From the Daily News Archives

When the euphoria of victory dies down, and together with it the media hype ceases, when the guns do not rattle and boom anymore and the sky, the land and the sea become calm and serene, when tranquillity reigns through it is natural to live in the present moment and forget the past. But one cannot live in the present without a past. Nor can one envision the future discarding the experience of the preceding events. Hence the Daily News is serialising the Chronicle of LTTE Terror taken from our own archives which would remind our readers how it all began. An awareness of the chronology of terror would help us prevent the recurrence of such terror and frustrate any attempts by misguided elements to repeat history to suit their evil designs. It was not simple terror. Nor was terror sporadic. It was all pre-planned, pre-determined, well-calculated terror. The victims were innocent people. Though it is too many innumerate we would like to recall the major episodes in the Chronology of Terror.

Wednesday, March 23, 1988

Curfew in Vavuniya after double pre-dawn attack:

Tigers kill 15 in swoop on two villages

LTTE terrorists gunned down 15 people and wounded at least 10 others in pre-dawn attacks on two Sinhala villages yesterday.

The dead included six children and two young mothers. Two families, one of six members and the other of four were wiped out by the killers, reports reaching Colombo said.

Mundimuruppu and Awusadapitiya, the two villages which the LTTE killer gangs picked for this strike - the latest in a series beginning this month which has already claimed the lives of about 80 Sinhala civilians - are situated on the outskirts of Vavuniya town.

An unofficial curfew was clamped on tension-gripped Vavuniya district from 10 a.m. yesterday to 4 am today, as security forces launched a massive manhunt for the separatist killers who escaped into nearby jungles after their attack.

The raiders had first descended at midnight on Mundimuruppu one and a half miles from Vavuniya town and about 500 yards from the IPKF camp, and killed nine people and wounded three others.

They had next proceeded to Awusadapitiya, about three miles from there, and gunned down a family of four and wounded several others.

A grama sevaka who had visited the scenes of the double massacre, told a reporter that the killer gang, numbering about 20, had first surprised a young man from Mundimuruppu named Anura, who was fishing with a companion at Pawakkulama tank. The terrorists had captured Anura, but his companion managed to escape.

The Grama Sevaka said the terrorists, using their frightened captive as a guide, had then made their way to Mundimuruppu.

The first house they visited belonged to H.A. Punchi Banda, a peasant, who was asleep with his wife and four children. The family were ordered out and as they emerged, were mowed down by gunfire.

After attacking a few more homes in quick succession, the killers moved to the next village. "But before leaving they killed their captive guide, Anura the grama sevaka said.

Sri Lankan troops who had rushed to the rescue of the villagers, recovered spent shells which indicated that the killers had used G-3, T-56 and FNC automatics.

A spokesman of the Indian High Commission told the Daily News yesterday that they had already heard of the killing of Sinhala civilians. "We are yet to learn more details," he added.

Meanwhile, PLOTE, one of the militant groups which agreed to the Peace Accord, has strongly condemned the spate of killing by the LTTE as an attempt to trigger a communal clash between the Sinhalese and the Tamils.

Monday, March 7, 1988:

Tigers kill two Indian soldiers, take another hostage

Tamil militants ambushed an Indian army truck in the North today, killing two soldiers and seizing a third, residents and witnesses said.

Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack on the outskirts of Vavuniya town.

The soldiers were dumping animal carcasses near a water tank when guerrillas from the LTTE opened fire from hideouts, surprising the Indians, they said.

The rebels threw the bodies into the truck and set it on fire before escaping with the captured soldier, the residents told Agence France-Presse by telephone.

Indian officials here confirmed the incident.

One resident, who said he heard heavy firing in the afternoon on the Mannar road, added that Indian troops backed by helicopters were combing the area.

"Hundreds of them are looking for the attackers in villages (there)," a Tamil resident said.

A Vavuniya witness claimed seeing the captured Indian soldier in the hands of the guerrillas.

It was the first known case of the LTTE taking an Indian soldier hostage since 18 troops were seized by the group in Jaffna town in October.

The soldiers were released the next month in the presence of Indian army officials and journalists. COLOMBO, Sunday, AFP

Thursday March 31, 1988:

Police intercepted terrorist message ten minutes before bus was blasted

From our Vavuniya correspondent P. Piyadasa

Police investigating the bomb blast aboard a bus at Wewelketiya, on Tuesday have positive evidence that it was the work of the LTTE, according to information reaching Medawachchiya police.

The blast left nine dead and fifteen seriously injured. Among the dead were three men, two women and a child. Particulars of the other three who died at the hospitals were not immediately known.

The SLTB bus, with about 25 passengers, left Horowpatana at 9.30 a.m. and was proceeding to Medawachchiya, 24 miles away, when the blast occurred.

The bus was 12 miles from its destination.

The time bomb is believed to have been planted in a gunny bag that contained onions. The bus was completely wrecked and its hood was thrown about 50 yards from the spot, while other parts of the bus came to rest on nearby trees.

Medawachchiya police, discussing security measure with grama sevakas in the police station earlier that morning, had intercepted a radio message, believed to be from the LTTE, that a bomb had been planted in a bus.

Orders were then given to check all vehicles entering Medawachchiya. Ten minutes after they had intercepted the terrorist message, they got the news that a bus had been blasted.

Ranaweera Mohottige (28) of Kirigollewa, one of those injured in the bus explosion and now warded at the Anuradhapura hospital recalled that the blast was deafening and he found himself sandwiched between two seats, unable to get out.

He was momentarily blinded, and when his vision cleared, he saw pieces of human flesh scattered about the bus.

LTTE attacks villages again

Wijitha NAKKWITA

While the Indian Peace Keeping Force was embroiled in the battle against the terrorist groups especially the most ruthless among them the LTTE the month of March 1988 was to see no respite from the attacks of the separatists terrorists who used all types of attacks on civlians especially the civilians of the north and east.

Once again the LTTE terrorists attacked two Sinhalese villages Mundimurippuwa and Ausadapitiya both remotely located isolated villages in the Vavunia district. In this raid on the two villages six children and two women were among the fifteen killed. The terrorists as usual use4d the cloak of night for the attack on the villages who were mowed down during the pre-dawn time.

There was violence and mayhem at Batticaloa in the next few days and they IPKF had to provide security to the town but 10 people including two LTTE cadres were killed in the volatile Batticaloa town when the terrorists turned on their guns on the Indian pace keeping force. The town had become ternse with a hartal organized by the terrorist groups during the last week of March.

On the same day two young men of Vavunia were found tied to two lamp posts with notes near their bodies condemning them as informants of the IPKF. They were shot in the head and killed before their bodies were tied to lamp posts.

During this time it was reported that the IPKF that came in as peace keepers by the beginning of the month had lost 600 men in attacks by the separatist terrorists.

On March 28 LTTE terrorists blasted a SLTB bus plying between Medawachchiya and Horowpothana killing nine passengers instantly while the rest of the twenty five passengers had been injured. It was a time bomb that went off in the bus bringing the total number of people killed during the month to thirty six including two LTTE cadres who had bitten their cyanide capsule when the IPKF was to arrest them

Thursday April 31, 1988:

Terrorist attack on B'caloa police repulsed

A local curfew was imposed in the Batticaloa town yesterday afternoon following an LTTE attempt to attack the police station in the Eastern Provincial capital.

Military sources said that two grenades had been thrown into the police station and the police and soldiers of the IPKF had engaged the attackers in a gun battle.

First reports said that two civilians were injured but later unconfirmed reports said that there had been six deaths - both terrorists and civilians.

The grenades had blown a hole in the police station wall but caused no injuries.

Reuters news agency, in a Colombo datelined report, quoted residents saying that Indian soldiers from roof top sentry points had "opened out with their machine guns."

A police report received in Colombo yesterday said that two Indian soldiers had been killed at Kiran, 14 miles out of Batticaloa on Tuesday. Police reports also said that the IPKF lost two men killed and four wounded when a foot patrol was hit by a landmine also on Tuesday.

Saturday, April 23, 1988:

Indian officer killed by Tigers

Lt. Col. A. S. Shekhon of the IPKF, Commander, 7th Madras Battalion, was killed in a terrorist ambush at Uriththrapuram, 7 km west of Paranthan, on Thursday, the Indian High Commission announced. An IPKF captain was wounded.

The spokeswoman said: "The Indian commander personally led the patrol in keeping with the highest military traditions. He succumbed to his injuries only after three terrorists had been killed. One of them was the Paranthan LTTE leader described as Nixon."

The IPKF patrol was on its way to Paranthan following reports that the terrorists were operating a camp there.

At Uriththrapuram, the terrorists, taking cover, opened fire at the IPKF from both sides of the road.

Lt. Col. Shekhon was hit in the chest, the spokeswoman said. The other terrorists ran into a nearby jungle carrying some of their wounded colleagues.

Indian troops also shot dead two LTTE fighters in the Mullaitivu district on Thursday and another LTTE militant in Jaffna.

The troops recovered four Soviet AK-47 assault rifles and two rocket propelled grenades from the two areas.

On the same day, LTTE rebels killed a member of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) at Kilinochchi, in a street clash, sources said.

Unidentified men kidnapped two suspected LTTE sympathisers in Batticaloa district, on Wednesday. Their bodies were found later.

The LTTE, the dominant Tamil separatist group, has repeatedly clashed with rival guerrillas.

Tomorrow: Tigers ambush bus load at Sittaru: 26 killed

Yesterday: Tigers massacre 15 at Morawewa