FIVE civilians were killed and 59 others, including four policemen, injured when a bomb exploded in a crowded market in Batticaloa town on 9 December. The police accuse the LTTE, but people say security forces were responsible for the carnage. Local MPs have written to President Chandrika demanding an independent enquiry into the explosion which took place inside a high security zone in the town with five checkpoints and a police station. Two days later, another bomb in a vehicle within the town killed the driver and postal worker PV Satheesh.
Mystery also surrounds the latter incident.
Satheesh was a member of the LTTE and surrendered to the Army in 1990. As the Tigers continued to launch widespread attacks in the east, the security forces carried out a number of search operations. The Army shot and wounded pregnant woman Thayalanayagi during a search operation at Vinayagapuram on 5 December. Her child removed by surgery was found dead. Reports say Batticaloa hospital patient Anthony Sasitharan was shot dead in mid-December by the police as he climbed over the hospital wall.