From News Dispaches COLOMBO: Sinhalese radicals shot and killed at least 18 people, including one of the nation’s highest ranking Buddhist priests, in a series of attacks in Sri Lanka, officials said Thursday.
The bloodshed came as Indian and Sri Lankan officials in New Delhi held talks for a sixth day on a timetable for withdrawing Indian troops from Sri Lanka.
The troops were deployed two years ago to enforce a plan to end the Tamil rebellion for autonomy. Radicals of the Sinhalese majority say the government has given too many concessions to the Tamil minority.
On Thursday five gunmen belonging to the People’s Liberation Front known by its Sinhalese acronym JVP stormed a Buddhist temple in Colombo the capital and killed one of the nation’s highest ranking Buddhist priests. The Rev Kotikawatte Saddhatissa Thera recently endorsed an offer by Sri Lanka President Ranasinghe Premadasa to negotiate with the JVP.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 11, 1989
