Sri Lankan prosecutors seek to reopen student killing case

Sri Lankan prosecutors have asked police to locate three key witnesses in the 2006 killings of five ethnic Tamil students, days after a judge dismissed charges against 13 policemen suspected in the case because of a lack of evidence.

The attorney general's department wrote to acting police chief Chandana Wickramaratne on Tuesday to say that evidence from two survivors from the shootings and the father of a killed student was needed to pursue the case. The three are believed to have left the country.

The judge said the state could reopen the case if the three are located and new evidence is found.

The killings drew international attention and were seen as a test of whether Sri Lanka was committed to dealing with alleged atrocities during its long civil war.