COLOMBO: Tamil guerrillas abducted 18 journalists from their Newspaper office and said they would be put to work on a new Tamil publication, a reporter who fled during the raid said.
The armed militants burst into the Jaffna offices of Eelanadu, Sri Lanka’s oldest Tamil language newspaper, the journalist said in Colombo.
He said he was one of five reporters who bolted to freedom before the abductors drove away with the reporters. The journalist asked not to be identified out of fear for his safety.
“i want to go back to Jaffna and my newspaper,” he said.
The Colombo office of Eelanadu which means Sri Lanka in Tamil confirmed the attack but gave no details.
The journalists said the gunmen belonged to the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front, which is supported by India and opposed the largest Tamil militia, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
According to the journalist, the abductors said they were going to publish a new newspaper called Viduthalai, which means liberation in the Tamil language. He has provided reliable information in the past.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 13, 1989
