
Tamil dailies subjected to SLA violence
Mariyathas Manojanraj (23), a distributor of the Jaffna Tamil dailies, Thinakural and Veerakesari, was killed by a claymore attack in Achchuvely, Jaffna on Thursday, 27 July around 4.00 am. Manojanraj was riding his motorbike to the Thinakural office when a claymore exploded on Rasa Road. His relatives stated that they believe the Sri Lankan army (SLA) was behind the attack because the SLA was aware of his work as a Tamil daily distributor when he registered at an SLA checkpoint earlier.
Transportation of Batticaloa Tamil dailies have been recently blocked at SLA checkpoints bordering Batticaloa town. Newspaper agents in Batticaloa have also been receiving threatening phone calls, warning them not to sell the Tamil dailies. There have been ongoing threats and violence against Tamil media since GoSL operated forces killed two journalists from the Uthayan Paper in Jaffna in May.
27 July 2006
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