White van armed men abduct Tamil woman in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 09:45 GMT]
An armed gang of men alleged to be paramilitaries operating with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) arriving in a white van Friday around 9:00 p.m broke into the house of a woman at Akkaraipattu and forcibly took her away, according to the complaint lodged with Akkaraipattu police by her children. Her husband had been abducted Monday around 5:00 p.m by armed men in a white van as he was riding home on his motorcycle, sources in Akkaraipattu said.

The woman abducted Friday is Kanagaratnam Maheswary, 45 and her husband abducted on Monday is Chinathurai Keerthi, 50.

Keerthi’s motorcycle was found abandoned at the 42nd mile post area along Akkaraipattu-Ampaa’rai road Tuesday.

Tamil youths, young women, and family persons being abducted by armed men in white vans besides arrests and forced disappearances have become frequent occurrences in the Eastern districts of Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai, according to Eastern Province Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians to whom the affected people had complained to.

Complaints of these human rights violations have also been made to Trincomalee Human Rights Commission (HRC).