The announcements on Voice of Tigers radio gave no reasons for ordering people to move out but residents fear an LTTE attack on the town is imminent. There is large-scale confusion.
People are scared.
About 50,000 people, including a large number of refugees displaced from other parts of northern Sri Lanka, live there. No one has moved out yet, but according to reports, people were preparing for the eventuality. Assurances from the army to the populace are reported to have had no calming effect. Vavuniya is the biggest town in northern Sri Lanka to be under continuous government control since 1990. With a huge garrison stationed there, it is almost a cantonment.