Two days later, another bomb in a vehicle within the town killed the driver and postal worker PV Satheesh. Mystery also surrounds the latter incident. Satheesh was a member of the LTTE and surrendered to the Army in 1990.
As the Tigers continued to launch widespread attacks in the east, the security forces carried out a number of search operations. The Army shot and wounded pregnant woman Thayalanayagi during a search operation at Vinayagapuram on 5 December. Her child removed by surgery was found dead. Two days later the Army shot and seriously injured K Prabhakaran, 12, in Valaichenai. Reports say Batticaloa hospital patient Anthony Sasitharan was shot dead in mid-December by the police as he climbed over the hospital wall.
The LTTE attacked security forces on 17 December at Thalavai in Eravur killing a Home Guard and seriously wounding civilian Thangavel Sumithra. Two soldiers were killed on the same day at Kiran. The following day the Army shot dead two Tigers at Eravur. Eight people were arrested after weapons were found buried in Majamthoduvai, south of Batticaloa town, in late December.
Five members of the Razik group were killed by the LTTE in an attack on 26 December at Punnaikudah in Eravur. A week earlier, a member of the Razik group and two Tigers were killed in a clash. The Razik group, a breakaway faction of Tamil party EPRLF, currently fighting the LTTE on the side of the Army, has also been accused of abductions and murders. Tamil group TELO’s Sivalingam Singarasa was shot dead by the Tigers on 27 December at Arayampathy.
In Trincomalee District, ambulance driver N Sounthararajah and V Dillirajah were killed on 14 December at Iranaikerni near Kuchchaveli. The Army blames the LTTE but the local people suspect they were shot dead by soldiers. Doctors and other hospital employees staged a strike on 16 December demanding adequate security for medical staff.
Over 670 people from Vavuniya refugee camps were sent by ship to Jaffna in early December, but 350 remain in the Uppuveli camp. Since LTTE attacks on ships began in July, ship services between Trincomalee and Jaffna are irregular and refugees remain under insanitary conditions in the camp. Markandan Annammah died of disease in the camp on 17 December.