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| Sunday, 25 December 2005 |
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Some 700 Muslims flee in fear of LTTE attacks by Lionel Yodhasinghe in Thoppur Over 700 Muslim families in Thoppur who left their homes in fear of LTTE attacks have pleaded with the Government and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to intervene and settle the crisis. The avenge of a shooting incident followed by assault and death of a suspected LTTE cadre in Thoppur on December 13 has forced these families to leave their villages for safety. These families presently housed at the Kiliveddy Al Falah Vidyalaya and the Al Thaj Maha Vidyalaya refused to return to their original villages in fear of LTTE retaliation. A small community of Muslims live in these villages Parathipuram and Jinnah Nagar which are encircled in predominantly Tamil residential area. "No one else other than the LTTE dares to challenge us here. A few of our villagers were shot dead while they were in their paddy fields and we feel insecure to live among them any further", a Samurdi Development Officer Majeed Khan said. The new conflict started following the death of a youth suspected to be a LTTE cadre when he came to rescue his colleague who shot at a Muslim youth in Thoppur on December 13. When people in the vicinity overpowered the gunman, this particular youth who tried to rescue his partner was also assaulted and he died while being rushed to hospital. Later in revenge, the LTTE is believed to be launching attacks on Muslims in surrounding areas to scare them away, he said. Most of the village farmers, small traders, fishermen and wood cutters complain that they are scared to move freely in the area as they could be a target any time. They conducted journalists to their paddy fields which had already been destroyed by suspected LTTE men to take revenge. Farmers complained that the cattle belonging to Tamil farmers of surrounding villages, Pammadukulam and Allainagar have been untethered destroying over 125 acres of Maha crop. "We are scared to chase the cattle away because the LTTE gunmen hiding in the vicinity fire in the air to frighten us, they said. They complained that they cannot meet even an emergency due to lack of public amenities such as a dispensary, a post office and an AGA office. The security forces have tightened the routine patrol to ensure safety for the displaced in the two camps and the SLMM has already visited the victims but no step has been taken to resolve the crisis so far for the residents to move freely to attend to their day-to-day activities, Khan said. Meanwhile, school authorities said that they found it difficult to restart the next term in January since to the schools are occupied by the displaced. |
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