TNA parliamentarian detained at Omanthai SLA checkpoint

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 September 2005, 19:35 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) manning the check point at Omanthai on A 9 highway Saturday afternoon detained Jaffna bound Mr.M.K.Eelaventhan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) national list parliamentarian, for about one and a half hours even after he identified him as a lawmaker. Mr.Eelaventhan told Tamilnet that soldiers had told him that they were checking his documents and other related materials on the orders of the Sri Lanka government.

Soldiers showed no desire to look at his Membership of Parliament identity card, Mr.Eelaventhan said.

He said that he was subjected to interrogation at Omanthai checkpoint for the second time. He made a complaint to the Speaker of the parliament when he went through a similar ordeal first time few months ago. But the Speaker did not take any action on his complaint. "I will not be registering another complaint with the Speaker, Mr.Eelaventhan said.

Soldiers at Omanthai checkpoint stopped the vehicle in which Mr.Eelaventhan was traveling with his family to attend a function in Jaffna, sources said.