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By Catholic News Service
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNS) —Catholics were among
the 18 civilians killed and 14 wounded in a land-mine explosion near the
Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu in Mannar, Sri Lanka, Jan. 29.
Those killed included 11 teachers and school children on a bus from a
nearby Catholic school. A school staff member and a Catholic nun were
among the 14 wounded.
“It happened within 1 kilometer of the shrine,” Father Emilianuspillai
Santhiapillai, administrator of the Marian shrine, told the Asian church
news agency UCA News by telephone.
“We managed to remove the bodies of the girls and boys and injured
teachers, under shelling,” he said in a faint voice, calling it
a “horrible scene.”
He said the bodies were taken to the shrine after the attack. Families
claimed bodies there, then took them home for “home rituals,”
he said, adding that all the bodies would be buried at the shrine’s
cemetery.
The Madhu shrine, 135 miles north of Colombo, is in an area controlled
by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which began fighting the Sri
Lankan government in 1983 for a separate state in the North and East for
the minority Tamil ethnic group.
Although the shrine is a “no-fire zone,” government and rebel
forces often have clashed in the surrounding area. Artillery shells have
landed on the shrine premises a couple of times, hitting a chapel on one
occasion.
Father Surenthiran Ravel Leenus, secretary to Mannar Bishop Rayappu Joseph,
said the bishop and priests were in touch with the families of the dead
and injured.
“Twelve people, including children, are in critical condition,”
Father Leenus told UCA News.
“Intense fighting has been going on around the Madhu shrine since
the dawn of the new year,” he added.
In peaceful times, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over Sri
Lanka go to the Madhu shrine during annual feasts. Its main statue of
Mary is reputed to have healing powers and is venerated by Catholics and
non-Catholics alike.
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