Twenty Tamil refugees return to Talaimannar by sea

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 December 2004, 17:10 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy Tuesday evening arrested 20 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees when they landed in Talaimannar coastal area and one of them with about one and half kilogram of ganja. All the twenty were handed over to the Talaimannar Police, sources said. Mannar Magistrate Mr.M.N.M.Abdulla Wednesday released 19 refugees and ordered remand till December 29 for the refugee who was allegedly possessing ganja when they were produced in court by the police.

The Magistrate directed the civil authorities to send the nineteen refugees to their native villages in the districts of Jaffna, Killinochchi and Vavuniya, legal sources said.

All twenty refugees left the Tamil Nadu coast in boats owned by Indians on December 13 midnight and arrived in Talaimannar Tuesday evening.

Refugees said that they paid six thousand rupees per head to Indian boatmen to return to Sri Lanka, sources said.