Fear of arrest haunts Matale Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 August 2008, 11:03 GMT]
Tension and fear prevail among upcountry Tamil residents in Matale district in the central province due to the daily cordon and search operations being conducted by Sri Lanka Police from Monday, sources in Matale said. Police have arrested several Tamil youths and are interrogating the detained youths on suspicion that the youths have links to Liberation Tigers.

A police party went from Kandy police arrested three Tamil youths Pathmanathan Prakash, 23, Ramanathan Navajeevan, 23, and Ramesh, 30, from Ratwatte Estate in Matale Monday night.

Three more Tamil youths were arrested in search operations conducted in other estates.

All six youths are now being detained in Kandy police station under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

In another incident, a Tamil youth, Ravichandran, a resident Wattagoda estate, was abducted on Tuesday night by a group of armed persons. He was later released on Wednesday at Palakaduwa after being severely assaulted. He was admitted to the Matale general hospital.

Meanwhile, six more Tamil youths, residents of Ukkuvella were taken into custody Wednesday by the Matale Police on the recovery of explosives found hidden in a jungle in the area.

Police said inquiry is being conducted by the Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) of the police to ascertain whether this consignment of explosives had been brought to the area by LTTE cadres. The youths are being detained in Matale police station and interrogated.