The town was deserted during the week due to Hartal

The Sinhala parliamentarian of the district, Jayantha Wijesekara, was assaulted by a group of Sinhala youths as he was distributing leaflets asking not to continue with the Hartal on the day of Tamil religious festival.

Sinhala Organisation of Trincomalee said the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MP and his supporters were assaulted and his vehicle was damaged near Abhayapura.

The police said no complaint was made on the incident.

Increased violence

Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities share almost equal representation in the district.

The district has been tense in recent weeks after the killing of five Tamil students near the beach and 12 sailors thereafter in a suicide bomb attack.

The military is accused of shooting dead the civilians but they deny any involvement. The defense ministry has begun a full scale investigation into the incident.

The Tamil Tigers are accused of killing soldiers and sailors but they say “the people” are behind the attacks.

However, the international truce monitors on Friday said that the LTTE’s explanation is “not acceptable.”

Failed attack

The police in Tambalagamuva said an attempt to explore two claymore mines targeting buses carrying Sri Lanka Army and Navy personeel by the suspected Tamil Tigers has been unsuccessful as the bombs and the code was disconnected during the blast.

The police have arrested some women on suspicion of the incident.

Artur Tititan, the district head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) has complained to the police that he was accused of supporting LTTE and threatened with abusive language by a group of youths.

The town was deserted and many residents in the district stayed at home due to Hartals called by both Sinhala and Tamil organizations, journalist R G Dharmadasa reporting from Trincomalee said.