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Kilinocochi arrest twists politically motivated: SL Army
Mar 15, 201403:57 PM
It has been reliably learned that several political elements are planning to hold protests in Kilinochchi and Vavuniya towns against the recent arrests pertaining to national security.
Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthi Sasitharan, who is the wife of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) former political head for Trincomalee, Velayutham Sasitharan alias Elilan and has even made a statement in Geneva on this particular incident to mislead the international community.
Military Media spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said that this had necessitated clarifications and hence a statement has been issued.
The statement says:
A team of law enforcement officers conducting an investigation into the recent distribution of handbills in the north by LTTE propagandists with a message detrimental to national unity have trailed a known ex-LTTE cadre named Gobi who had escaped from Vavuniya Welfare Centre immediately after the end of conflict. On reliable information that the suspect was hiding in a house in the Killinochchi area, the team went to arrest him on 13 March 2014. The suspect who was armed had opened fire while escaping, wounding an officer who is now hospitalized.
When the house he was hiding in was searched a F-3 type metal detector used to detect buried metal objects/mines was found in the premises. The owner of the house, a female named Balendran Jayakumari was taken into custody for harboring an armed criminal wanted in connection with an ongoing investigation. Her young daughter (a minor aged 13) was also taken into protective custody since there was no adult in the neighborhood willing to provide her with shelter.
The female was produced before the magistrate’s court and has been detained after following due legal procedures.
The allegations by Ananthy Sashidharan and other politicians with vested interests that this arrest was carried out as the suspect was one of their supporters are incorrect and totally baseless. Such misleading statements are politically motivated and we reject these attempts to hide the truth. The actions taken by the law enforcement authorities are well within the existing legal framework and are carried out to ensure peace, territorial integrity and national unity.
