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| Sri Lanka |
| Sri Lankan Navy seizes Indian trawler smuggling Sri Lankan Tamils |
| 2006-08-22 |
| (KUNA) -- Sri Lankan Navy seized on Sunday an Indian trawler attempting to smuggle 85 Tamils from Sri Lanka's Northwestern Mannar region to Southern India, said media outlets on Monday. According to the Press Trust of India in Sri Lanka, the trawler and its three-man Indian crew and the 85 Tamils, who tried to flee the country, were detained for questioning. Some 7,000 Sri Lankan Tamils have fled to India this year as fighting between government troops and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) escalated since last December, claiming at least 1,500 lives. Meanwhile, one of the casualties was a former Tamil politician and a newspaper director was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in northern Sri Lanka late Sunday night. The 68-year-old Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah was the Managing Director of the Jaffna Tamil daily "Namathu Eelanadu." He was a member of the Tamil National Alliance, a political party opposed to LTTE. So far nobody has claimed responsibility for his death. |
| Posted by:Fred |