Jaffna university final year student feared abducted

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2007, 16:42 GMT]
Family members of a final year science faculty student missing since Wednesday, from Kokuvil East Jaffna, registered a complaint with the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) Jaffna office Thursday that they suspect the student has been abducted. In a separate incident, unidentified armed men in a white van abducted a youth, employed in the postal department, from his house on Chemani road at Nallur Thursday around 9:00 a.m.

Arunagirinathan Niruparaj, 25, senior student in Jaffna campus mysteriously disappeared while engaged in moving from his house to another house in Kokuvil. His footwear and motor cycle, left abandoned in the house, showed evidence that he had been taken away forcibly.

The abductions come in the wake of the special meeting, convened by the Jaffna university Acting Vice Chancellor, Wednesday to explore possibilities of assuring the safety of the Jaffna university students when the university reopens on January 22nd, which ended inconclusively due to the insecure and uncertain atmosphere prevailing in the Jaffna peninsula.

During December 2006, a Jaffna university student travelling from Delft to Jaffna disappeared, and earlier two undergrads were shot to death near Jaffna campus.

The postal employee abducted by white van armed men on Chemani road was identified as Thuraisingham Balraj, 23.

In a separate incident, unidentified armed men arriving at the house of Thiraviyam Satkunam, 30, at Vathiri, Karavedy in Vadmaradchi Thursday around 9:00 a.m, shot and seriously injured him. Satkunam was first rushed to Manthikai hospital and then transferred to Jaffna Teaching hospital for further treatment.

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