Armed men in white van abduct 2 civilians in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 April 2007, 20:39 GMT]
Unidentified armed men came in white van abducted a fisherman from Kolumbuththurai, Jaffna and a family man from Navatkuli in Thenmaradchy, their relatives lodged complaints at the Jaffna branch of the Human Rights Commission (HRC).

Rajenthiram Uthayakumar, 26, a family man from Navatkuli housing scheme, was abducted on 9 April and Gopalasamy Kosalan, 20, a fisherman from Kolumbuththurai was abducted on 13th Friday.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Valikamam west conducted an intensive search operation from Monday early morning, blocking all the roads in the villages of Pandaththarippu, Sillalai, Ilavalai, Vadaliyadaippu, Mareesankoodal, Saanthai and Piranpathai.

No People were allowed to move out of their houses and all the young men and women from the villages were brought to a public ground and paraded before the masked men who identify them by nodding their heads. This search was conducted in the aftermath of a claymore attack on SLA carried out in Valikamam west a few days ago, sources in Valikamam said.

No official information is available of anyone arrested during the search.

This search brought to an end the brief lull in the Sri Lanka armed forces' restrictions that had accompanied the Tamil Sinhala New Year that fell on Saturday. All the restrictions on movements of people, checking at sentry posts and other military routines that had been relaxed, resumed in full measure Monday.

In the meantime, SLA blocked all the key roads like Palaly road, Kankesanthurai road, Kandy road and Point Pedro road for nearly two hours around Monday afternoon and moved heavy military equipments and personnel to its Forward Defense Lines causing inconvenience to the public.