COLOMBO, Oct 11: Sri Lanka called out troops and imposed a curfew in the island’s east on Friday after three people were killed in protests that underscored the fragile nature of a truce between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Tyres were burned and roads blocked in Trincomalee by protesters enraged over the deaths of seven Tamils, who were shot on Wednesday during a clash with government forces.

It was the bloodiest skirmish since the government and Tigers signed a truce in February.

“There are three bodies at the hospital and 34 people have been injured,” one resident Trincomalee said.

Officials said the three died when a grenade exploded in a village near Trincomalee, a port 240 km (149 miles) northeast of Colombo.

The protests shut major centres in Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts, which make up most of the eastern seaboard of the island, but officials said the tension had eased.

“It became calmer in the afternoon,” said Teitur Torkelsson, spokesman for the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which oversees the ceasefire.

The clashes come as the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) prepare for a second round of peace talks in neutral Thailand at the end of the month.

Officials said preparations were going ahead.

The Tigers called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to restore order.

“We request the Ranil Wickremesinghe government to take the necessary steps to resolve this issue as soon as possible, then people will get confidence in the peace process,” said Pulee Devan of the LTTE’s political wing.

Secretary of Defence Austin Fernando said the curfew would last until dawn on Saturday.

Trincomalee, with a population divided equally between Sri Lanka’s main ethnic groups, Buddhist Sinhalese, Hindu Tamils and Muslims, has been a flashpoint during 19 years of civil war.

SLMM head Trond Furuhovde travelled to Ampara and Batticaloa for talks with government and LTTE military officials and will go to Trincomalee on Saturday.

Tamil groups have accused government forces of overreacting on Wednesday and firing into a crowd protesting against an assault on two rebels. Officials said they were forced to defend themselves after a mob of up to 1,000 attacked a paramilitary camp.

The government has said it did not want to comment until an investigation team sent to the east reported back.

The Tigers have been fighting for a separate minority Tamil state in the north and east since 1983. More than 64,000 people have died in the war, but the guns have been mostly silent since the ceasefire was signed.—Reuters