Muttur cordoned and searched

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 June 2000, 13:13 GMT]
A large number of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and police cordoned off Muttur town, south of Trincomalee, in its entirety and conducted a search operation from 9.30 a.m. till 1.30 p.m. today said residents. At least 25 people were detained on suspicion during the search. Residents were headed to the town hall and interrogated in front of masked spotters.

More than 150 police personnel from Trincomalee, and about one hundred SLA soldiers from Kallady camp were brought to the Muttur town to conduct the search.

Meanwhile six people from Ampara district who went to work in paddy fields in the Polonnaruwa district were arrested by the Sri Lanka Army soldiers on Friday, according to sources at the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in the eastern town.

Those arrested are being detained at the Anuradhapura prison, the sources said.

According to the complaints made with the Human Rights Commission, the arrested were identified as:

Vickremasingham Sivapalan,29, K.Ruthramoorthy,32, Iyathurai Uthayarajah,27, Kathirkamathamby Vimalarakavan,23, Nakamuthu Kirupalananthan,23, and Nakamuthu Vishvananthan,27, all from Saakamam area in the Ampara District.

In a seperate incident, four people, including a woman, were arrested when the police searched a rice mill in Welikande, on Friday.

They were identified as Kanapathipillai Makenthiran, Pakiyarasa Sivashankar, Sivaguru Selavarajah, and Veerasingham Mallika, all from Kommanthurai in the Batticaloa district. They are detained at the Anuradhapura prison, HRC sources said.