Kattankudy District hospital affected by Tsunami

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Unidentified group attacks Tamil Tiger rebel office in eastern Sri Lanka

Associated Press, Tue May 3, 2005 01:48 EDT . COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Unidentified men fired automatic rifles and lobbed grenades at a Tamil Tiger rebel office in Sri Lanka's volatile east, but the building was apparently empty during the attack, police said on Tuesday.

Separately, attackers fatally shot and killed a village council member in the country's northwest, police said. Authorities blamed the attack on the Tamil Tigers' political office late Monday on a feud between the mainstream rebel group and a faction that broke away last year. ``We suspect the attack was connected to the internecine fighting between the two groups,'' said K.G. Dharmawardene, chief officer in the area.

He said police recovered two T-56 assault rifles at the scene of the attack in Valachchenai village, just north of the eastern town of Batticaloa. Both rebel factions use the rifles. The attack came hours after the funeral in Batticaloa of prominent Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram, a board member of a prominent pro-Tiger Web site. He was abducted last week in the capital, Colombo, and shot dead. Police have made no arrests but suspect that the killing of Sivaram, whose articles had favored the mainstream Tiger group, was linked to the feud between the two factions. On Tuesday, three men shot and killed village council member H.M. Wasantha of the opposition United National Party in Ratnapura, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of the capital, Colombo, said area police officer T. Solangaarachchi.

Three men shot Wasantha and then fled in a van, Solangaarachchi said. Further details were not immediately available. It was unlikely that his slaying had any link with the rebels or their factional feud, Solangaarachchi said. Also on Tuesday, police found the body of an unidentified youth bound and gagged near a roadside in Eravur village near Batticaloa, said military spokesman Daya Ratnayake. Investigations had begun, he said.Violence has plagued eastern Sri Lanka since the Tigers' ranks split in March 2004. Scores of people have been killed, and the situation threatens a fragile cease-fire between the rebels and Sri Lanka's government.

The Tigers launched a war in 1983 to carve out an independent homeland for the island's minority ethnic Tamils, who claim discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. Nearly 65,000 people were killed before the truce. Subsequent peace talks broke down two years ago.

TODAY'S TOP STORY

The private bus plying from Maduru Oya to Colombo which skidded off the road yesterday at Polgahawela.

Two killed, 21 injured as speeding bus skids off road

Five days after the tragedy at Yangalmodera, a speeding private bus plying from Maduru Oya to Colombo skidded off the road yesterday at Meddalanda, Polgahawela killing two people and injuring 21, Polgahawela Police said yesterday.

One person was killed on the spot and another succumbed to his injuries on admission to Kurunegala hospital.

The speeding bus had gone off the road crashing into several coconut trees as it was competing with another bus, ASP Gamini Gunatilleke in charge of the Polgahawela Police Division told the Daily News.

The accident occurred just half a kilometre away form the Yangalmodera level crossing towards Kurunegala. This level crossing was the scene of one of the biggest accidents in recent times - 35 people were killed when a bus which tried to zig zag through the gap in the closed gates was hit by an intercity train.

The injured were admitted to the Kurunegala Teaching hospital. An employee attached to the National Water Supply and Drainage Board was killed on the spot, Police added.

The accident occurred around 6.20 in the morning. Among the injured were four females, one Police officer and two Army personnel, Police said.

S. Selvakumar of Kurunegala, Panagamuwa travelling in the ill-fated bus said the bus was competing with another bus as he got into the bus around 5.45 am. Another bus on the same route passed Kurunegala without stopping there and Selvakumar had got into this bus.

"The bus came very fast. I heard a big sound and I found myself in a stream with that sound as I was thrown out of the footboard. I came out of it and helped the passengers to come out of the bus," he said.

Police arrested the driver and the conductor. ASP Gunatilleke said the bus was taken to Polgahawela Police Station. The Colombo- Kurunegala road was blocked for several hours after the accident and traffic was turned towards Colombo through the new Colombo road.

Polgahawela Acting OIC P.D.R. Kulatunga is conducting investigations under the supervision of ASP Gamini Gunatilleke.

Meanwhile, Warakapola Police said another private bus plying from Maduru Oya to Colombo collided with a lorry at Helagala, Warakapola, around 7 am injuring the lorry driver. However, there was no confirmation whether it was the bus which was competing with the ill-fated bus which had gone off the road at Meddalanda.