Police collects personal details of Tamils in Modara

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 January 2008, 18:01 GMT]
“Sri Lanka Police has no authority to collect private personal details especially financial details even during the current State of Emergency in Sri Lanka,” Mr. R. Yogarajan, the Vice President of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) said in an interview to BBC Tamil service Thursday. The forms distributed to the Tamils by the police in Sinhalese language calling for personal details including place of work, phone number, and bank details, ending into the hands of criminal elements would be dangerous to the Tamils, Yogarajan told the BBC.

Modara Police issued Wednesday forms in Sinhalese language calling for personal information, without any official symbol, to Tamil householders in Modara to be filled up and returned on Thursday.

“I rang up the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and raised the issue and he replied that the said forms were issued by the police because we need the details of the persons living in our area. I told him that we will be bringing the issue to the notice of the Supreme Court,” Yogarajan told BBC.

“The SSP hang up, but later called me and said that he had ordered Modara police to cancel the effort,” he added.

Mr. R. Yogarajan requested affected residents not to complete the forms.

Meanwhile, a demonstration against war was held Thursday in Colombo organized by by the Left Front (LF) and presided by Dr. Wickramabahu Karunarathne, the leader of the Left Front.

Many Parliamentarians including Mavai Senathirajah and Suresh Premachandra representing Tamil National Alliance (TNA), representatives of several political parties and labour unions participated in this demonstration.

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