NEW DELHI, India, Dec.20, Reuter : Indian forces in Sri Lanka captured 35 Tamil rebels in the Island’s northern and eastern provinces during search operations in the past 24 hours, an official spokesm Save an said on Sunday.
The spokesman, quoted by the Press Trust of India, gave no details of where or how they had been captured.
He added that two rebels militants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) —were killed and five others injured during the operations on Saturday at a location he did not disclose.
He said the fleeing militants had abandoned seven rifles, 13 grenades and a quantity of ammunition, indicating “a plummeting in the morale of LTTE cadres”.
The spokesman said arms and ammunition had been recovered at four other places in Tamil areas of the provinces and two LTTE militants, one of them a woman, had surrendered.
Some 30,000 Indian peacekeeping troops are in Sri Lanka to enforce an Indo-Sri Lankan pact signed on July 29 to try to end four years of rebellion by the Tamil minority.
Only the LTTE has refused to give up the struggle and senior Indian military sources earlier this month estimated some 1,500 2,000 guerrillas were fighting on.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 25, 1987
