SLA reimposes road checks in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2010, 04:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna have reimposed sudden checking of persons and vehicles at the junctions of main roads in Jaffna peninsula which had been suspended prior to President Election, sources in Jaffna said. SLA officials in a report to local media Wednesday claimed that checking is being reintroduced in the context of escalating incidents of abduction for ransom, killings and robberies in the peninsula. Meanwhile, peninsula residents and civil society organizations said that this very criminal violence had taken place unchecked before the suspension of road checks by the SLA and the police. Working according to a hidden scheme SLA has reimposed the road checks as the first step in bringing the entire peninsula under its total grip, they further said.

Though SLA had announced that road checks will be carried along with police personnel there are no signs of police presence in road checks now.

SLA intelligence wing and the paramilitary groups operating with it are alleged of involvement in the abductions for ransom, killings, extortion, robberies, sexual assault on women staying alone and similar violence that have escalated in recent times in Jaffna peninsula.