SLA arrests malaria patient

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 March 2000, 13:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) arrested a malaria patient in front of the Mutur hospital, south of Trincomalee today. The patient, a youth from a village in that part of the district held by the Liberation Tigers, had come to Mutur with his wife and child for treatment, said sources.

An SLA foot patrol had arrested him on suspicion because he was from Pattalipuram, a poor agricultural settlement that lies to the southeast of Mutur in the large hinterland controlled by the Liberation Tigers.

His young wife had pleaded with the soldiers not to arrest her husband as he was suffering from a severe bout of malaria.

The sobbing mother with her child was left helpless as her husband

was dragged away by the soldiers, the Tamilnet's Mutur correspondent said.

The youth was later handed over by the SLA to the Mutur Police. He has been detained for interrogation Police sources said.