COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan army on Thursday captured the Thirumurikandi junction on the main road to the LTTE’s political headquarters of Kilinochchi, the Ministry of Defence said.
But the pro-LTTE website Tamilnet said that government troops fighting in the Puthumurippu area, east of Kilinochchi, and at Ariviyal Nagar, south of Kilinochchi, had to withdraw after suffering heavy casualties.
It was a two-pronged attack by the army’s 57 Division which secured the Thirumurikandi junction on the A9 highway linking Vavuniya with Kilinochchi.
The junction is north of Kokavil, which was taken a few days ago, and 4 km south of Iranamadu, where the LTTE reportedly has an air strip for its fledgling air force.
While the Sri Lankan authorities were silent on fronts other than Thirumurikandi, Tamilnet said that 60 army soldiers were killed in fierce fighting near the ditch cum earth bund defences between Oottuppulam and Puthumurippu west of Kilinochchi. About 29 were killed at Ariviyal Nagar south of Kilinochchi.
More than 180 soldiers were wounded in the two clashes, the website added, quoting LTTE sources.
TN GOVT SHOULD SUGGEST DEVOLUTION MODEL: On the political front, the veteran moderate Tamil politician, V nandasangaree, said that the government of Tamil Nadu should suggest a suitable model of devolution for the Sri Lankan Tamils, and prevail upon the LTTE to accept it in the larger interest of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the President of the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) said that the Tamils of the island country did not want separation from Sri Lanka. Additionally, the world, including India, would not accept an independent Tamil Eelam. Devolution of power within a united Sri Lanka was the only answer, he said.
He then went on to advocate devolution of the kind existing between the Central and State governments in India, and said that the “greatest contribution” that the people of Tamil Nadu could make to the evolution of peace in Sri Lanka was to pressure New Delhi to get Colombo to implement the Indian model of devolution.
On its part, the Tamil Nadu government should come ou t with a devolution package which it considers “reasonable” and get the LTTE to agree to it, Anandasangaree said.
Pointing out the uselessness of the LTTE armed struggle, he said that till last year the LTTE had lost 20,000 boys and girls in its fighting forces for nothing. The Tigers had lost 90 per cent of the territory held by them, and the Sri Lankan army was only 15 miles from Kilinochchi, the LTTE’s political and administrative capital, he pointed out..