The recent spate of violence in the Batticaloa district which claimed some 20 lives, is on the decrease following the launching of a mass Satyagraha campaign in Batticaloa town early last week, headed by Batticaloa mayoress Sivageetha Prabhakaran, informed sources said.

‘It is obvious that the hidden hand behind the violence is now choosing to restrain itself, fearing that it would be identified, in the face of the popular pressure that has been launched in the form of the Satyagraha’, these sources said. They added that the violence in no way could be attributed to any purported rifts within the TMVP.

Questioned about the reported differences between Plllayan and Karuna, these sources said that if at all there are any differences they are purely ideological in that Pillayan believed that the Eastern Provincial Council should be vested with police powers while Karuna did not consider this important.

Other than for this issue there are no major differences between the parties, they said. They also explained that the Karuna faction was not responsible for the recent killings in the East.

Sections of the Eastern public, they said, are faulting the Pillayan administration for not reining-in the violence but they pointed out that the Eastern Provincial Council could do little or nothing in this regard because the Council does not enjoy police powers.