Sri Lankan police and STF (Special Task Force) officers recovered weapons and grenades in areas across Vavuniya, alleging that they were buried by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The recovered weapons – including special rifles, magazine of bullets and guns and hand grenades – were found during the search operations in the Ponnavarasankulam and Eechankulam areas of the district on Sunday.
The searches were carried out following a Sri Lankan state intelligence tip-off and a court order was granted for the sites to be examined.
After the Sri Lankan police officers, STF and ground excavators worked together to raid the areas and find the grenades, they were defused by a locally-based special bomb squad.
While there has been multiple intrusive search operations in the Tamil homeland over the years conducted by the Sri Lankan state alleging the existence of LTTE weaponry, in many instances these are often unsuccessful. Late last month, an extravagant raid for LTTE weapons in Vavuniya returned only a crowbar.
The frequent military activities and presence in the North-East under the guise of searching for weaponry has been regarded as another attempt by the state to intimidate and surveil Tamil civilians’ lives.
