Army Special Forces praised for demining seabed

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Army Special Forces praised for demining seabed
Villagers and the fisherfolk of Mullaitivu praised the Special Forces of the Sri Lanka Army for having taken timely action to clear the seabed of mines and other ordinances, reports from Mullaitivu said yesterday.
There was the possibility of these unexploded mines and artillery shells being washed ashore or getting entangled in nets posing a grave danger to civilians.
The SF Commander in Mullaitivu Maj. Gen. Prasanna Silva said that following the advice of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Army Commander Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya had instructed that Special Forces personnel, trained in underwater operations be deployed to carry out the de-mining of the seabed.
They had been successful in de-mining to a depth of 150 meters up to distance of two kilometres from the coast along six kilometres of the coastline," he said.
Maj. Gen. Silva said: "We have deployed over 500 Field Engineers attached to the SLA to carry out the mine clearing operations on land manually. They also carried out the de-mining mechanically.
We have succeeded in clearing the Mullaitivu town and parts of Oddusuddan, Mulliyawalai, Thunukkai and Manthai East so that the IDPs could be resettled. The biggest challenge that we are yet to confront is de-mining the areas of the final confrontation with the LTTE such as Pudu Mathalang, Pudukududirruppu and Vellamulivaikkal which are full of unexploded explosive devices of all kinds," the SF Commander for Mullaitivu said.
Sources in Mullaitivu said that along with the SLA Field Engineers the UK based Mine Advisory Group, the Indian based Sarvatra, the Swiss Foundation for De-mining (FSD ) were also assisting in the mine clearing operations.
Courtesy: The Island