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3 killed in Trincomalee blast

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO. Oct. 11. Sri Lanka's eastern Trincomalee district was brought under curfew today after three people were killed and 22 injured in a grenade explosion.

According to reports, the grenade exploded near the Trincomalee town, where a general closure was on to protest the October 9 police firing, which killed five persons in eastern Amparai district. Following the explosion, the curfew, which was in an administrative division of the district, was extended throughout Trincomalee.

The Defence Ministry said that there was a "sudden deterioration" in the security situation in which burning of tyres, congregations at junctions and roadsides were among the incidents.

The Ministry has ordered the Army and the Navy to step in to assist the police. The Deputy Chief of Staff, Anton Wijendra has been given charge of co-ordinating all security issues.

The sudden turn of events during the past two days comes as a serious challenge to the ongoing ceasefire between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In end-June, Tamil-Muslim clashes sent the east into a panic mode, but the tension were de-escalated following talks between the Sri Lanka Army and the Tigers.

Taking a serious view of the situation, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) termed today's incident as violence unleashed against the Tamils by some lawless elements and "We strongly condemn this cowardly attack'', R. Sampanthan, Parliamentary leader of the TNA, said.

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