COLOMBO: Five policemen were among 47 persons killed in violence in Lanka according to security sources on August 26.
A Sub Inspector and two police constables, the driver of the vehicle they were travelling in and a laborer were killed in a landmine explosion in the south. In another incident two policemen and a security officer were killed opposite the Wilapattu Nationali Park in the north central province.
Unconfirmed reports said gunmen killed about 35 people in a remote village in north central Sri Lanka on Friday night.
The reports said women and children were among those killed in the attack at Punchikulame in the Anuradhapura district 180 km northeast of Colombo.
There were also reports saying that the villagers were killed in retaliation by anti-subversives over the killings of the parents of a security force person a few weeks ago.
Four other persons were killed in separate incident in other parts of the country.
Shankar and Praba two members of EROS, were shot dead allegedly by members of the EPRLF in Trincomalee on Saturday morning according to an EROS spokesman.
The spokesman said that a Pajero van belonging to the EPRLF is usually parked close to the EROS office every night. On Friday night a grenade is said to have exploded near the vehicle. Following this the IPKF had summoned EROS members to the Brigadiers office on Saturday morning. When the EROS members were returning the EPRLF cadres fired at the vehicle in which they were traveling and killed the two men. Six others who were also fired at had jumped out of the van and tried to escape. Two of them had ‘been seriously injured. One of them, has been identified as Tilak, a military commander of EROS.
The JVP is prepared for a ceasefire in the South if the President Premadasa, gets India to withdraw the IPKF and send the Sri Lankan forces into the north and east says S.D. Bandarnaike of the Sri Lanka Progressive Front.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 1, 1989
