29 Tamil youths arrested in Katunayake in two incidents

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2009, 11:26 GMT]
Twenty nine Tamil youths were taken into custody by the State Intelligence Unit of the Sri Lanka Police at Katunayake International Airport in two separate incidents Thursday and Friday, sources in Colombo said. The arrested youths are now detained in the Katunayake Police and are being interrogated.

In the first incident Thursday early morning eleven Tamil youths took a flight to Singapore. But the Singaporean Immigration and Emigration officials refused permission to these youth to enter Singapore, and sent them back to Colombo. The youths returned the same day night around 10:00 p.m. and were taken into custody by the State Intelligence Unit with the assistance of Katunayake police at the Katunayake International Airport, sources said.

In the second incident that took place on Friday eighteen Tamil students were arrested by the State Intelligence Unit personnel when they arrived in Katunayake International Airport to take a flight to London. The youths had valid student visas issued by the UK embassy, sources said.

Since July this year, special teams of State Intelligence Unit and police have been deployed in the Katunayake international airport to monitor the movement of Tamils who go abroad, according to sources in Colombo.