A jihadist component to the strife in Sri Lanka. “Jihad armed men on the rampage in the East,” from Asian Tribune:
Colombo, 23 (Asiantribune.com): Jihad armed group has suddenly gone berserk
killing recently two Tamils in the East.
On the last 20 August, according to reports, Jihad armed men have killed, Jeyaraj (29 years old), a three-wheeler driver, at Jinna Nagar, a suburb located at the Third Mile Post, three km north of Trincomalee Town.
Also on the same day, Jihad gunmen killed Thiyagachandran (54 years old) at
Valaichchenai, who is the brother of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa parliamentarian S. Jeyananthamoorthy.
In a statement, Eelam Revolutionary Organization (EROS) revealed that they have
lost one of its members known within EROS as “Gerald” otherwise known as Jeyaraj, who EROS claims was shot and killed on the evening of 20 August at Jinna Nagar in Trincomalee by a man identified as “Nizam” who is affiliated to a group calling themselves the “Jihad” — a
armed group mainly of the Muslims in the Eastern Province.
The Jihad armed group have been in existence since 1985 and known to have
targeted political opponents and civilians in the past, however this is the first time the Jihad group who are based in parts of Trincomalee, Amparai and Batticaloa have begun to [target] Tamils from the East.
Sources in the East told the Asian Tribune that since of late, [Jihad members] claiming themselves as holy warriors of Islam, has started functioning in the East and are involved in resettling Muslims in Oddamaavadi and in the adjacent villages.
Sources told Asian Tribune that Jihad armed group works very closely with some
Muslim Government Ministers from the East. Also it was revealed that Jihad and some Muslim
Ministers have taken steps to bring in Muslim internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and making arrangements to settle them from Welikantha to Oddamaavadi with the view to carve out that region as a separate Muslim district.