Gopi and two others killed during clash

by Dhaneshi Yatawara

Kajeepan Ponniah Selvanayagam alias Kasian alias Gopi and two other LTTE supporters were shot dead during the early hours of April 11 (Friday) when they attempted to flee the Army cordon set up to capture them. All three were killed during the confrontation.

On information received from the public the Army traced the exact location where these three most wanted LTTE operatives were in hiding.

“On March 10, 2014 troops in a search operation in the jungle areas off Padaviya recovered four back-packs containing items such as pre-cooked food, medicine, clothes which were believed to be used by these terrorists,” said Brgd. Wanigasooriya.

The Army narrowed down the cordon area and during this operation when the three suspects attempted to make good their escape.

The other two were killed in the confrontation and were identified as Sundaralingam Kajeepan alias Thevian and Navarathnam Navaneethan alias Appan. Thevian was identified as one of the LTTE key figures involved in aerial attacks on the Anuradhapura Air Base and Kollonnawa Petroleum Storage in 2007.

Investigators trailing these suspects made several arrests of second and third tiger cadres.

During an earlier attempt to catch the LTTE operatives on March 13, 2014, Gopi escaped after shooting a police officer.

Names of these key suspects surfaced when Sri Lankan defence authorities started to investigate an attempt of terrorists cum LTTE supporters to regroup in order to bring back a struggle for an independent state.

According to the Military this was reported from Pallai in the Jaffna district. Investigators made several arrests that led to recovery of arms, ammunition, explosives and other material that were in their possession.

We broke the story in our issue of the Sunday Observer of April 6. where we said that these LTTE operatives were on the run.