Two church aid workers killed by blast in Sri Lanka

Published: 2006-04-11

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNS) -- Two church aid workers were killed by a mine that reportedly was detonated in an attack aimed at Sri Lankan government soldiers. Shanmugaratham Pathmanathan, 55, and Chelvendra Pradeepkumar, 29, aid workers for Caritas Jaffna, the local partner of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, known as CAFOD, were returning April 10 from tsunami recovery work in northern Sri Lanka when the mine explosion killed them both. The workers were in a van passing a Sri Lankan army jeep coming in the opposite direction. As the two vehicles passed, near an army checkpoint at Mirusuvil, a mine attached to a bicycle was detonated, killing five soldiers in the army vehicle and the two aid workers, said CAFOD, an agency of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, in a statement. Pradeepkumar was the coordinator of social mobilization and tsunami relief programs, and Pathmanathan was a coordinator of the children's program.

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