Tigers target church, kill 44

COLOMBO, Nov 21 (PTI, UNI) — Fortyfour civilians and six LTTE rebels were killed in heavy fighting in northern Sri Lanka last night after the army counter attacked some of the towns captured by the Tamil Tiger guerrillas in north-western Vanni and took control of the strategic Roman Catholic town of Madu.

Army and official sources said today that the rebels who withdrew deep in the western sector of Vanni in the face of army advances hit back with a barrage of artillery fire damaging a 17th century Dutch-built church at Madu, where over 3500 Tamil civilians displaced by war had taken refuge.

Church sources later said that over 300 soldiers too were present in the compound when the artillery shells started raining over the church.

While the Lankan army said 38 civilians, including 24 children and 16 women, were killed in the rebel shelling, reports from northern Vavunya said 44 civilians were killed and 50 others injured in the mortar explosions.

Six rebels were also killed in a confrontation with troops in other parts of Vanni.

Condemning the attack on the church premises, the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Sri Lanka appealed to both the army and the LTTE to withdraw from the sacred area of the shrine and asked them to refrain from using Madu to gain strategic or political advantage.

Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry in a statement said the LTTE launched indiscriminate mortar attack on civilian refugees in the church.

The bishop of Mannar Rayappa Joseph said it was clear that the provocation of the attack by the LTTE was the presence of some 300 Sri Lankan soldiers in the shrine compound.

"Besides the destruction of the Sacred Heart Chapel, a section of the main shrine had suffered extensive damage.

The whole church of Mannar and of Sri Lanka are sad that this sacred place so dear to the Catholics and to all the citizens of Sri Lanka had come under such a destruction never heard of in its 450 years of history,’’ the bishop said.

Army spokesman Brig Sunil Thennakoon said the rebels fired mortars at the church compound believing that troops had taken over the area.

But the army moved further north of Madu by the time LTTE rebels started firing mortars around 2200 hrs last night at the church, he said.

The army, which lost a series of towns in the north, north-east and north-west of Vanni to the LTTE during the past few weeks, launched the strong offensive for the first time in three weeks and regained Madu town, reports here said.

After its success in Madu, the army appeared to be moving ahead to take control of four other small centres — Pallamandu, Periamadu, Palampatti and Thatachannamar.

9 massacred in Bihar

BAGHA (BIHAR), Nov 21 (UNI) — At least nine person were killed and three seriously injured in a clash between villagers and a dacoit gang at Chandraharupalia village under Bathwariya police station in west Champaran district during the past 48 hours, the police said.

The gang of dacoits yesterday murdered seven persons and injured three while on Friday it shot dead two person in the same village and torched about 20 houses.

The villagers also burnt a few houses in a nearby village, which was said to be the native place of the gang leader, the police said.

The clash took place following a dispute on cutting of grass.

The injured were admitted to hospital.

Senior police officials rushed to the spot with reinforcements to control the situation after tension gripped the area following the attacks.

The District Magistrate of West Champaran and the SPs of Bagha and West Champaran were camping in the village.

The massacre comes close on the heels of the gunning down of 12 members of a minority family in Loto village in the state’s Palamu district on Tuesday night.

Mr Bishambhar Ram, SDM, Bagha, told PTI that heavily armed attackers swooped on the village and fired indiscriminately at a group of village voluntary force personnel killing six of them on the spot.

Four others sustained bullet injuries and were admitted in a critical condition to Sadar Hospital here.

The incident is believed to be in retaliation for the killing of two members of the notorious Laloo Yadav gang by angry inhabitants of the village a couple of days ago, he added.