Chronology of LTTE terror- Part 21

When the euphoria of victory dies down, and together with it the media hype ceases, when the guns do not rattle and boom anymore, and the sky, the land and the sea become calm and serene, when tranquillity reigns through it is natural to live in the present moment and forget the past. But one cannot live in the present without a past. Nor can one envision the future discarding the experience of the preceding events. Hence the Daily News is serialising the Chronicle of LTTE Terror taken from our own archives which would remind our readers how it all began. An awareness of the chronology of terror would help us prevent the recurrence of such terror and frustrate any attempts by misguided elements to repeat history to suit their evil designs. It was not simple terror. Nor was terror sporadic. It was all pre-planned, pre-determined, well-calculated terror. The victims were innocent people. Though it is too many innumerate we would like to recall the major episodes in the Chronology of Terror.

Parthian shots of terrorists on the run?

Car bomb kills 12 in B'caloa town:

A car bomb exploded in Batticaloa's central bus stand yesterday morning, killing at least 12 civilians and injuring seven members of the police Special Task Force, official sources said.

They said some of the victims died when power lines collapsed on them after the blast, the first known car-bomb explosion in the country.

The explosion, official sources said, occurred at 11 a.m. at the northern end of the bus stand, in a "Volkswagen" car which completely disintegrated.

IGP Cyril Herath confirmed a death toll of 12 civilians. He said the dead were all Tamils.

The injured STF men were in a patrol vehicle a few yards away and their vehicle too was wrecked by the powerful blast. The injured men have been warded at the Polonnaruwa hospital.

Mr. Herath said it was likely that the bomb was aimed at the STF patrol although it may not have had the desired effect.

"It is too early to say how the bomb was triggered. But it looks like that our men were the target," Mr. Herath said last evening.

Intelligence reports indicate that with the continuing campaign by Security Forces against terrorists in the Batticaloa district, the encampments of the four main groups which have been active in the area during the past few weeks, have been dislodged.

EPRLF, PLOTE and TELO have withdrawn and only some LTTE stragglers remain, reports said.

But hit-and-run tactics similar to yesterday's explosion are likely to continue, official sources said.

Meanwhile, reports from the northern province indicate that military encampments are still being subjected to sporadic mortar attacks by terrorist groups who disappear soon after discharging a mortar shell and a hail of small arms fire.

Terrorism continues despite lull in violence

Wijitha NAKKAWITA

If about twenty people, all unarmed in inoffensive civilians, were murdered in the span of around in less than twenty days that would have not been a sufficient harvest for the ruthless terrorist bands of the north and east bent on killing more and more helpless civilians in the north and east irrespective of whether they were Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslim.

That was how the month of September continued with no signs of the terrorist groups changing their modus operandi remaining unchanged since the separatists terrorists started their acts of violence as far back as 1975.

Now eleven years later the pattern had not changed but only the numbers of civilians killed changed sometimes to very large numbers but barely a week passed without even one person killed by them.

The violence also had come to the Eastern Province though it started in the north during the first few years of terrorism but in September 1986 the terrorist groups EPRLF, PLOTE and TELO had withdrawn from Batticalao area as the armed forces and notably the Special Task Force were pursuing them vigorously.

On September 8 the terrorists exploded a car bomb in the Batticalao town killing 12 civilians and also injuring 7 STF men on a foot patrol in the Batticaloa town. Immediately the investigations were conducted and there was evidence that the car bomb was exploded by the LTTE who now were becoming the worst killer group among the separatist terrorists

The next incident was the murder of Leader of the Sarvodaya movement in Jaffna K. Kadiramalai who was known among the people as Gandhi of Jaffna. He was shot in the head and tied to a lamp post on September 27. No terrorist group claimed responsibility but in was known that it was the LTTE who had killed him.

For a week or so the terrorists were quiete while the TULF were talking to the government while New Delhi was also urging the terrorist groups to stop violence and agree to a political settlement.

But on October 7 the LTTE killed a young couple and dumped their bodies in the CTB bus stand at Kilinochchi. They were Kandiah Pakiyam (30) a baker and his wife.

The couple was killed while their eight year old daughter was at school but the residents of the locality did not know why they were killed as they were good law abiding citizens and had not dabbled in politics. The killing surprised residents of the area who had told the police that they could not understand why the terrorists wanted tp kill the couple.

There was very little doubt that the crime was committed by the terrorists.

On the same day in the eastern province some LTTE and EROS terrorists had infiltrated the refugee camp at Kadiraveli, Palamunia and started a fight that killed one refugee and injured three others.

The month of October did not give any indication that the terrorists were prepared to listen to their benefactors but were hell bent on killing civilians, the most helpless in remote areas and ones like the Sarvodaya Leader of Jaffna K. Kadiramalai known as Gandhi as he firmly believed and practiced non-violence.

Gandhi promises to intervene with extremists

Prime Minister Premadasa, on Tuesday, met Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Harare for the second time, to discuss the ethnic issue and the question of terrorists operating from Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Premadasa is reported to have given details of the proposals offered by the Government to the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) during the talks last week, authoritative sources said.

It is reliably understood that the Indian Prime Minister assured Mr. Premadasa that India would try to persuade the separatist extremists to accept the proposals granting substantial autonomy to the provincial councils. Mr. Gandhi said he was anxious that an early settlement should be reached on the Tamil issue.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shahul Hameed met Indian Minister for External Affairs Shiv Shankar, in Harare.

Informed sources said that both Mr. Premadasa and Mr. Hameed were pleased with the outcome of the talks.

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Tomorrow: Death at the lamp post for Kadiramalai

Yesterday: Random killings continue