An assistant to one of the petitioners in a Habeas Corpus (disappearances) court case was brutally attacked with an iron rod in Vaddukoddai, Jaffna yesterday. 

The 36 year old victim had been riding her push bike with her young son, when an unidentified man in his mid-30s came up from behind and hit her on the shoulders with an iron rod, before pushing her son out of the way and hitting her directly on the head. 

She remains in hospital with a major concussion and laceration, and was unconscious for almost two hours.

While hospital police recorded the incident as an assault, the Vaddukoddai police refused to accept the complaint saying she fainted. 

The woman is serving as an assistant lawyer representing one of the families of disappeared's petitioners in the Navatkuli Habeus Corpus case, which is currently being heard in Jaffna courts. 

The case is in regards to the disappearance of over two dozen Tamil youths in 1996, who were disappeared after having been detained by the Sri Lankan army. 

The assailant fled from the scene, without taking any money or the gold chains the victim and her son were wearing at the time. 

Earlier this week, petitioners had raised the issue to the judge of intelligence officers being present in the courthouse unnecessarily, which the Attorney General's Department had objected to, saying they were required for his "security".