BREAKING NEWS: Gunmen attack Jaffna newspaper office, torch printing machines

(01:42 GMT) An unknown group of gunmen has carried out a pre-dawn attack on the Uthayan newspaper main office and set fire to the printing machines in the heart of the heavily-guarded Northern Jaffna Peninsula, a top journalist attached to the Jaffna-based newspaper said this morning.

“The office was busy getting ready for the routine distribution of newspapers when the group of gunmen entered the printing section of the office after threatening security guards and other workers at gun-point. As they entered the printing section, they opened fire at the machineries before pouring patrol on the machineries and the news prints and set them ablaze,” a senior journalist of the newspaper told JDS via phone from the scene.

It was only last week that the Uthayan newspaper’s delivery office in the Kilinochchi town came under attack.

Further details are awaited.

© JDS