Police-SLA arrest thirteen Tamils in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 June 2003, 19:39 GMT]
Police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) conducted cordon and search operation in Wellawatte, a predominantly Tamil suburb in Colombo Friday and arrested thirteen Tamil youths, security sources said. This joint operation took place as part of the new security measures now being carried out in the capital of the country since the gunning down of a police intelligence unit head in Dehiwala, police said.

The police and army soldiers first took in more than one hundred Tamil young men and women for questioning during a house-to-house search operation Friday. Thirteen of them were later arrested and detained at the Wellawatte Police station and were being subjected to further interrogation, police sources said.

The United National Front government said recently that it has tightened the security of the Colombo city and its suburbs to curb the increase of crime in the city, sources said.

The Police and Sri Lanka Army have commenced regular cordon and search operations in several parts of the country, especially in the eastern province, civilian sources said.

Tamil areas are being frequently subjected to these checks and searches, sources said.