TNA activist in Ampaa'rai abducted, tortured after meeting against land grab

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 May 2013, 23:33 GMT]
An armed squad that came in a white van on Tuesday abducted a 68-year-old activist, Thangathurai Veluppillai, a supporter of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Ampaa'rai district. The victim was blindfolded while he was at Kalmunai public market and was taken away by the squad that tortured him to obtain the names of the TNA activists in Ampaa'rai district. The abduction comes a few days after the intelligence of the occupying SL military ‘investigated’ him following a meeting against the land grab by the SL military in his division. After 3 days of interrogations in Batticaloa, Mr Thangathurai was taken back to Kalmunai and released there, the sources further said.

Informed civil sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet that the abducted victim, who hails from Malvaththai in Chamman-thu'rai division of Ampaarai district, was taken to Batticaloa for interrogation.

The Eezham Tamils at Malvaththai have been demanding their own Tamil division as they have been unable to expect justice from the hostile Sinhala officials who were scheming demographic changes.

TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathiraja attended a meeting at Malvaththai on 23 April following the request from the villagers after reports that 70 acres of land, initially earmarked for a radio station in the Chammaan-thu’rai DS division of the Ampaar’ai district is being segmented for the construction of a Sri Lankan military cantonment.

After the meeting, the SL military intelligence, which had been threatening the villagers not to complain against the land grab, obtained the names of the organisers of the meeting.

The latest abduction is an attempt to trace all the links of the TNA in order to suppress the villagers from protesting against the seizure of their lands and the militarisation of their village.

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