Published on - 3/7/2005
LTTE, in what was seen as another orchestrated move to strain relations between the Security Forces and the public in Jaffna, once again went on inciting a section of mobs in the Jaffna town and its suburbs on Friday (04 March 2005) after an Army tractor caused death of a thirteen year old girl in a traffic accident near the Seylan Bank in Jaffna town.
Those mobs, incited by the LTTE after the road accident resorted to a series of provocative and violent acts that included arson attacks on two bunkers and the SLFP political office, damage of an Air Force vehicle, blockade of roads by burning tyres, pelting stones at Security Forces, etc.
The girl on his way to her school on her newly-bought push bicycle was run over by that Army tractor returning to a camp after some work in the morning.
The girl however succumbed to injuries in the Jaffna hospital while a specially dispatched Air Force helicopter awaited her airlift to Colombo National Hospital for emergency medical treatment.
As mobs, incited by the LTTE began to turn violent and unruly, the Police were compelled to use minimum force to quell escalation of violence by firing shots and tear gas into the air and batton-charge in order to maintain law and order in the township.
In another location close to the supermarket, the Police had to open fire on another unruly mob, causing injuries to one of them below his knees. He was admitted to the hospital for treatment. Hospital sources meanwhile confirmed that dead body of an elderly man from Thinnaveli area was also brought to the Jaffna hospital around the same time. Reason for his death is yet to be ascertained.
However, as mobs began to disperse by about 5. 30 p.m. the Police with the assistance of the armed forces intensified security in trouble-torn areas after taking all necessary steps to maintain law and order. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission has also been alerted.
Those unabated LTTE provocative acts, aimed at disrupting normalcy and jeopardizing all efforts, orientated to bring peace to the country, continue to pose a major setback to good relations now being maintained between the public and Security Forces in Jaffna peninsula.
