SLA searches TNA MP's Mannar residence

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2005, 00:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers from Mannar camp encircled Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Mr Vino Noharathalingam's residence at 5.15pm Thursday before entering the house, and searched all rooms in the house for suspicious material, the MP said in registering his complaint to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

Mr Noharathalingam's house is located in Pettah, Sebastiar Road in Mannar.

Only the TNA MP's house was searched in that area by the SLA soldiers, area residents said.

Mrs Noharathalingam said in her complaint to the SLMM and local police that she was in the house with women friends when the SLA soldiers entered the house, and that the soldiers ignored her plea that the she was the wife a TNA parliamentarian.

Selvam Adaikalanathan, TNA parliamentarian for Vanni said that the incident is an inevitable consequence of escalating threats and harassment of district residents by SLA soldiers. He added that he was, however, surprised by the SLA violating special previleges afforded to a parliamentarian especially when Emergency Regulations was not in force.