Colombo: Investigators have not found
clear skeletal remains in an alleged mass grave of Sri Lankan
troops, but bone fragments and ash from the site have been
sent for further forensic tests, police said on Thursday.
A team comprising forensic experts and government
analysts exhumed an area where four LTTE detainees had
confessed "as a place where 26 Sri Lankan military soldiers
both from army and navy were buried".
Police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said the bone
fragments and ash were sent to the government analyst
department for further report to establish if it came from
humans.
Jayakody said no further excavations were being done
after the probe launched on Tuesday.
The suspected location in the border of Kilinochchi
and Mulativu districts was earlier a stronghold of the LTTE.
Police suspected that the soldiers who may have been
executed were those undeclared as captives by the LTTE to
international humanitarian organisations.
The details of the suspected mass grave came up during
an interrogation of arrested LTTE cadres by the Terrorists
Investigation Unit of the Sri Lanka police.
They reportedly told the police that the LTTE shot and
killed the captives and later burnt their bodies and buried
when government troops marched into Kilinochchi early last
year.
Local media reports said a team of 60 investigators
and officials who carried out the excavations collected 26
sacks full of earth, ash and other debris from the location
for further study.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, November 25, 2010, 18:41