There was a near miss for a Sri Lanka Air Force Bell 212 that took off from their base in China Bay, Trincomalee on Friday.
It made an emergency landing in an unsecured area south of Pulmoddai.
There was panic as Brigade Commander, Brigadier Nihal Jayakody rushed a battalion of troops to secure the area. Navy’s Comeast, Rear Admiral A.H.M. Razeek, ordered the Israeli built Dvora patrol craft to cover the sea coast.
Under heavy protection, another chopper with technical men landed in the area. They effected repairs and the two choppers took off over an hour later as troops heaved a sigh of relief.
Friendly fire (or blue on blue as they call it in military parlance) took its toll once again on men deployed in the defences along A9, the main highway from Vavuniya to Kilinochchi.
This time it was after the August 1 LTTE counter attack on the western defences at Omanthai. Policemen manning this sector scattered and some ran for cover in the neighbouring jungles.
It was a day later when a group of six decided to return to their positions. They were mistaken by their colleagues to be Tiger infiltrators. They opened fire. Two fell dead but the others escaped miraculously.
It was only last month that two separate patrol groups from the Navy and Army, who ventured out of their respective defended areas mistook each other for LTTE cadres and exchanged fire. Two Navy men were killed.
Talking of Friday’s LTTE counter attack, security forces seized a sizeable quantity of small arms. The LTTE also seized a prize catch - an Automatic Grenade Launcher (AGL) from the Navy.
Lankapuvath, Sri Lanka’s national news agency, is to soon go through an overhaul. But the agency continues to be active with ‘important’ stories being cleared by higher ups before they are moved out.
One that was put out on July 29 makes interesting reading. It says, “President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has directed Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department to probe the purchase of aircraft from Ukraine, several of which were allegedly destroyed not through enemy action, but due to technical and pilot errors during the last 2 1/2 years.
“Senior CID sources told Lankapuvath Tuesday that the aircraft concerned were Antonov 32 troop and logistics carriers and MI 17 troop carrier helicopters.
“The President’s directions to the CID, according to the sources, are due to alleged attempts at corruption running into several million dollars.
“The President has stated that she will not tolerate any corruption at any level of her administration and that she would bring the culprits to book, in keeping with her manifesto pledge to make Sri Lanka a corruption free society.”
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