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From: WIKI

Ethnic cleansing

The LTTE has been blamed for forcibly removing (or "ethnically cleansing") Sinhalese and Muslim inhabitants from areas under its control, including the use of violence against those who refuse to leave. Most notably, the LTTE forcibly expelled the entire Muslim population of Jaffna on two hours notice in 1990.[45] The LTTE are also accused of organising massacres of Sinhala villagers who settled in the Northeast under the dry lands policy.[46]

The LTTE has apologized for the expulsion of Muslims and has blamed this event on the misconduct of one of its regional commanders. However these expulsions had taken place in Jaffna where the supreme leadership of the LTTE was based . It is therefore unlikely that these expulsions were planned at a local level. Furthermore no punitive action was taken against those who expelled the Muslims from Jaffna. The LTTE has taken the added step of encouraging Muslim civilians to return their homes and livelihoods and providing compensation. However very few Muslims have accepted this offer.

The LTTE feels the expulsion of Sinhalese civilian from the North East of Sri Lanka is a necessary step to safeguard the rights of the Tamil minority. The LTTE alleges that most of the North East lands were originally owned by Tamils, who were forcibly evicted to make way for government aided Sinhala colonization schemes. These schemes, they argue were created with the sole intent on making Tamil civilians a minority in their traditional homelands and hence a means to further deprive their rights under the present district based unitary political system.[47]. However Muslims and Sinhalese formed over half of the population of the East province throughout recent history. Furthermore the existence of archaeological evidence shows that the Sinhalese inhabited the Eastern province for thousands of years. Scholars acknowledge the existence of a Tamil kingdom in the Northern province but there is no evidence of a Tamil kingdom in the Eastern province[48]. Therefore the basis for the LTTE's claim of the Eastern province as a traditional homeland of the Tamils remains contentious[49].

And excuse my slight geographic inaccuracies, I'm relying on memory, not google.

The article you posted above is typical of what this rebel group does depending on the region it's in.
Because it's "cell" leaders can be any of the three religions and operate independently, This often leads to religious bigotry when they take over a village. The rebel group seems to have forgotten it's main cause in some instances, which was as mentioned, Tamale's Independence. Even that is a clouded issue, because it's also a blood line- or tribal if you wish- issue.

Stupid no matter how you look at it, but that seems to always be the case in less civilized parts of the world.

"However Muslims and Sinhalese formed over half of the population of the East province throughout recent history".

Note the journalists error in that statement. Islam is not a race of people, it's a religion. You must always be alert to this, as Muslims try make it a racial issue. To be "Muslim" is like being "Christian" It isn't based on your skin color, or the shape of your cranium. "Muslim' is simply what a believer of Islam is called, as "Christian" is what a follower of Christ is called.