Colombo, Sri Lanka — Soldiers raided the jungle hideouts of Tamil guerrillas and killed or wounded more than 100 of the separatist rebels, the state-owned Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corp, said Sunday.
It quoted a government spokesman as saying a captured guerrilla told authorities the Mannar district leader of the Liberation Tigers, one of six Tamil guerrilla groups, fled when the soldiers attacked Saturday.
The spokesman did not identify the guerrilla leader, but said soldiers found several important papers in a briefcase the rebel left behind.
The papers included letters from Tamil leaders in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where Sri Lankan leaders maintain the separatist groups are based, indicating that the Liberation Tigers were responsible for the massacre of 150 people at Anuradhapura last month, said the spokesman, who was not identified by name.
Tamils comprise about 18 percent of Sri Lanka’s 15 million population, and Sinhalese about 78 percent. Most of the Tamils live in the north and east of this island nation off the tip of India, and militants among them want the regions turned into a separate Tamil nation.
Most Tamils are Hindus, and they say they are discriminated against by the Sinhalese dominated government. Most Sinhalese are Buddhists.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 21, 1985