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TRINCOMALEE, (Sri Lanka) April 23: Hundreds of Tamils and Sinhalas have started fleeing the eastern port town of Trincomalee after two mine attacks on the police triggered tit-for-tat clashes between armed men from both sides.
Three policemen were killed in the mine attacks.
Night curfew has been clamped on the region, but has so far failed to stop the violence.
According to officials, over 1,500 people have left their homes and sought refuge in temples and churches.
“Sinhala and Tamil people have stopped moving through each other’s villages. This is the worst kind of communal friction to grip the country since the 1983 black July when Tamils were attacked,” an NGO activist said.
“The situation is very bad. It’s totally out of control. We are doing everything we can to calm down the situation, but it’s already out of control,” a spokeswoman for the Nordic truce monitors told Dawn.
The LTTE blamed the administration and the military for the lawlessness. The Tigers said the military had angered the Tamil community through a campaign of harassment.
MAJOR SHOT DEAD: A senior military official and three others were killed in incidents of violence on Saturday.
A Sri Lankan army major was killed and six soldiers were seriously wounded when their vehicle was ambushed with a mine by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in the Batticaloa district.
The blast took place 150 metres away from a military check point.
