Abducted students released, allege SLA involvement

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 July 2007, 19:30 GMT]
Three students studying Advanced Level in two prominent high schools in Jaffna forcibly abducted 4 May night during curfew from their homes by armed men were released Wednesday night near their homes, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The abducted students were kept in captivity for the past 69 days were brought to their homes in a white van before their release.

Suntharalingam Yasotharan, 17, from Thirunelveali and Nagarajah Venukanthan, 19, from Brown Road Jaffna were attending Jaffna Hindu College in Mathemetics and Arts Division respectively.

Kugarajan Kannan, 19, of Kasthuriyaar Road, Jafna was attending GCE (A/L) Mathemetics section at St. John's College.

Yasotharan's father is a principal at the American Mission College in Thammatti in the islets of Jaffna, and Venukanthan's father is a high level official at the Jaffna branch of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC).

The abductors released the students on condition that they will not divulge any information to the media and have threatened the students with death if they failed to adhere to the condition.

The students while admitting that they were abducted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops refused to provide any information about where they were kept captive.

Information provided by the released students confirmed active involvement of SLA into the abduction of students in the peninsula, Missing Persons Committee sources in Jaffna said.

No details of several other missing students including the advanced level student at Hartley College, Point Pedro, Murugananthan Paramananthan, 19, who has been missing from January from Northern coastal town of Viyaparimoolai, and Thananjayan, a student at Velayutham Boys’ School in Point Pedro who went missing from 12 January, are not known.

Chronology:


Related Articles:
17.01.07   Hartley College student disappears