Search operation in Dehiwala

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2001, 15:18 GMT]
More than five hundred Tamils were arrested during a house-to-house search operation by Sri Lanka Army and Police personnel in Colombo's suburb of Dehiwala, in the early hours of Sunday. About one hundred of them were taken to local police station for interrogation, the Police said.

About two-hundred armed Police and Army personnel were deployed during the operation which began around 4.30 a.m.

Police sources said majority of the arrested were released later in the evening.

Last week the Police arrested 140 Tamils during a search operation in the Negombo area, north of Colombo Twenty of them are still detained, according to the Police.