2ND LEAD

Colombo detains ITAK youth leader cum editor after criticism on PTA arrests

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2016, 13:36 GMT]
The notorious 'Terrorist' Investigation Division (TID), operated by the 'Defence Ministry' of genocidal Sri Lanka has arrested V.S. Sivakaran, the Youth Wing secretary of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) and the editor of Tamil weekly ‘Puthiyavan’ on Wednesday afternoon at the paper office located on Mannaar Main street. Sivakaran's arrest is an attempt to suppress criticism being levelled against the abduction-styled arrests taking place in the Tamil homeland, journalists in North said. The arrest comes 2 days after Sivakaran went on record strongly condemning the PTA based arrests that have taken place in the North and East.

The TID officers gave a ‘receipt’ in respect of ‘persons arrested under the Emergency Regulations or the Prevention of Terrorism Act’. The ‘receipt’ stated that Mr Sivakaran was to be detained at Vavuniyaa, according to his family.

On Sunday, Mr Sivakaran had demanded an immediate end to detentions without legally valid reasons.

Stating that Maithiripala regime is in no way different from that of Rajapaksa regime, the Colombo government was deploying the so-called ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ (PTA) re-enacting a regime of terror in the North and East, Sivakaran said in a video interview on Sunday.

The video is reproduced below:



Chronology: