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Tamil newspaper staff held hostage by Karuna faction
A key activist of the Karuna group has reportedly decamped and fled to India while Karuna loyalists are alleged to be holding a newspaper editor and journalists hostage to force them to publish pro-Karuna news, reports from Batticaloa said.

The Ampara-Batticaloa deputy political wing leader, Kirisan, reportedly fled to India on Friday after selling his motorcycle and obtaining a passport in Colombo on Thursday. Kirisan was the deputy to Kaushalyan, who is in the Wanni and is backing the LTTE leadership there in the current power struggle against the eastern Karuna faction.

Meanwhile, P. Venugopal, editor of the pro-LTTE newspaper 'Thamil Alai' published from Kokkadicholai, was allegedly being held hostage with nine other journalists who have been forced to carry pro-Karuna news in the paper. Reports said the editor and his staff were not being allowed to leave their office while no visitors were permitted entry.

Earlier, Karuna loyalists are alleged to have set fire to thousands of copies of the 'Thinakural' newspaper published from Colombo. They claimed Thinakural was backing the LTTE's Wanni leadership.

Thinakural News Editor Siva Ganeshan told The Sunday Times that they had been warned not to distribute their paper in the Batticaloa area including the town. He denied charges that they were backing the LTTE's Wanni leadership.

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