Humanitarian operations continued

Humanitarian operations conducted by Sri Lankan Armed forces have reached its final stage; with troops are poised to rescue thousands of civilians in the No Fire Zone [NFZ] held hostage by the LTTE terrorists. Sri Lanka Army has almost swept away all terrorists strongholds in the northern anterior of the 12 kilometres long NFZ demarcated for the civilians and now limited their mop up operations to the southern anterior.

Sri Lanka Army 58 Division soldiers are spearheading the rescue operations as they have established their positions closest to the NFZ border, West of Ampalavanpkkanai and South of Puthumathalam. Troops have identified the best accessible routes for the civilians to come out of the NFZ and established rescue points there. According to the defence sources, some of these rescue points are located just 150 metres short of the LTTE built earth bund on the NFZ border.

" Troops continuously keep the civilians informed about the safe routes to the cleared areas as they open up more escape routes to the civilians by removing terrorists blockades", said the sources.

"Public address systems have been a positioned at several locations closest to the NFZ to convey these information to the civilians", the sources added.

Meanwhile, troops of 58 Division rescued 386 hostages including 157 children, 98 women and 137 men during the daytime yesterday (Apr 9). The civilians so rescued have told the defence.lk correspondent that the LTTE has been committing horrendous crimes to prevent civilians leaving their hold.

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