Around four people are being abducted on a daily basis in North by the Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives clad in civil as ‘Terrorist Investigation Division’ of the Sri Lankan Police. The abductees are taken to interrogations cells operated in each district. Most of the victims are taken to interrogation camp situated in Vavuniyaa, paramilitary sources in Vavuniyaa said. Many of the families of victims avoid media focus due to the prevailing threat and intimidation by the SL military. One of the abductions reported in Jaffna this week was carried out by armed men who came in a white-van to Karaveddi in Vadamaraadchi South West on Wednesday night.

The abducted victim at Karaveddi was 42-year-old Thayanithy Aazhvaarpillai. The ‘TID’ squad that came in a white van forcibly took him after binding together both his legs and arms. The squad didn’t provide any document claiming the ‘arrest’. However, SL police in Nelliyadi has admitted that Mr Thayanithy was taken for interrogation by the TID. But, they didn’t provide any document to the family.

The victim is a relative of the assassinated Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Maamanithar K. Sivanesan.

Within the last two months, more than 70 people have been detained and interrogated by the SL military, according to its own claims. However, the exact number of these illegal arrests is not known, as there are no evidences or official complaints to document the figures, news sources said.

Only 12 of those detained have been released. Although they were released in front of a Sri Lankan Judge, there was no formal registration or document to prove their detention.

Despite the propaganda by Colombo that it had curbed a fresh regrouping of former LTTE members and the report of the assassination of three former Tiger members in Nedungkea’ni, the arbitrary arrests and abductions still continue in the North, legal activists told TamilNet

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