257 Tamils arrested in outskirts of Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 05:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police took into custody 301 persons including 257 Tamils in a joint search conducted in Gampaha, in the outskirts of Colombo city, from Thursday 6:00 p.m till Friday 6:00 a.m, according to police spokesman, Ranjith Gunasekara. 8,830 persons were interrogated in the search, he said. The relatives of the arrested Tamils have lodged complaints with Deputy Minister, P. Rathakrishnan and Mano Ganeshan, leader of Western Peoples’ Front (WPF) and Colombo district parliamentarian.

Among the arrestees except the Tamils others belonging to other ethnic communities have been taken in for involvement in criminal activities, Ranjith Gunesekara told the media.

The relatives of the Tamil arrestees complained to the Deputy Minister that many Tamil youths are being held in the same cells where Sinhalese criminals are detained.

The arrested Tamil youths are being detained in Gampaha police station and other police stations in the district.