Police arrest ten Point Pedro fishermen

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 September 2002, 15:40 GMT]
The Point Pedro Police in Jaffna district took ten Tamil fishermen for questioning Thursday in connection with the loss of a T-56 rifle belonged to a police constable.

The constable had reported to his superiors that his weapon had been missing since Sunday night from his sentry point in the Sakkottai beach area. The Vadamarachchi Fisheries Co-operative Federation has brought the arrest of the fishermen to the notice of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Jaffna and other humanitarian agencies in the peninsula.

Vadamarachchi Fisheries Co-operative Federation officials said that the arrest of fishermen is another form of harassment following the incidents that had taken place on September 2 during students' agitation.

The Ten fishermen were taken in for questioning Thursday morning when they were preparing to go to sea for fishing, sources said.

Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Army conducted a search in the area close to Sakkottai under the supervision of senior officials on the presumption that the missing weapon could be buried there, sources said.

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