The Army retaliated by shelling Tiger-held areas west of Batticaloa lagoon. A day earlier the LTTE shelled Army’s Third Brigade headquarters, the airbase and the district secretariat in the Puliyantivu section of Batticaloa town. Sixteen soldiers at the headquarters were wounded.
Many of the government departments are in Puliyantivu adjoining the headquarters and Tiger artillery capability makes relocation impossible. The last two years have seen LTTE gaining ground in many areas after the closure of 44 military camps and observers believe Batticaloa is now under real Tiger threat.
The Tigers are also increasingly targeting members of other Tamil militant groups fighting on the side of the Army. Three were killed and three others wounded on 15 October in a LTTE attack on a TELO camp at Arayampathy, three miles south of Batticaloa. Three EPRLF cadre were abducted on 20 October in Pandiruppu. On the same day the body of S Sasikumar abducted earlier was found tied to a lamp post in Thuraineelavanai.
After a clash with the LTTE on 18 October, soldiers attacked and wounded Puthukudyiruppu Kali temple priest K Sivapalan. The following day, the Army shot dead Kiran student P Chandrakumar. In late October Michael Pavakunan was abducted and killed by men in uniform at Murakkottanchenai. A shell blasted a car at Sunkankerni near Valaichenai on 31 October killing two members of the same family.
Over 260 Tamil families at Central Camp in Amparai District fled after Tigers hidden in a truck shot dead two policemen at a checkpoint. In a Special Task Force (STF) search operation that followed in Alankulam and Komari, local LTTE leader Mahesh was killed. Over 100 refugees from Amparai Fourth Colony where police ran amok last month, were arrested from a Sinnakudyiruppu camp by the STF on 20 October. All were released later.
A 30-strong LTTE unit stormed the bus depot in the southern sacred city of Kataragama, 60 miles south of Amparai on 11 October, burning 19 buses and killing a man. The attackers escaped into the nearby Yala jungle. Transport minister AHM Fowsie estimates the damage at Rs 17 million.
Six Muslims were abducted by unidentified gunmen on 10 October from Kadduvanvillu in Polonnaruwa District. The bodies of four including 18 year-old A Buhari were later found. An Army officer and two soldiers were killed in a Tiger ambush at Welikanda on 18 October on Polonnaruwa-Batticaloa road.