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Most detenus freed: Colombo

COLOMBO: Stung by criticism from various quarters for the “indiscriminate” arrest of Tamils following the last week bomb blast here, the Government on Tuesday announced that 2,352 of the 2,554 had been released.

The largest-ever combing operation in and around Colombo in search of LTTE suspects and detention of large number of persons in the last few days has triggered panic among the Tamil community. Following representations from many parties and families of the detained, President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday directed the police to release innocent citizens immediately.

At a special news briefing here, Minister for Highways and Road Development Jeyaraj Fernandopulle defended the action of the police and said the operation was a follow up to the November 28 parcel bomb.

He said, “They [bombers] did not have any labels on them as LTTE or terrorists. Therefore, the Government was compelled to search people and places in the interest of public security, since that was the responsibility of the Government.”

He said that so far 2,554 persons, both men and women, had been taken into custody for questioning.

Of the 202 still in custody, 100 are in detention and 102 are to be produced before the magistrate.

He said they did not belong to one particular community and some were Sinhalese and Muslims.

He said people had been detained under the normal law and argued that these were not uncommon. “It happens all over the world, be in America, U.K. or India.”

Separately, Amnesty International condemned the mass arrests and said it was deeply concerned that the arrests had been made on arbitrary and discriminatory grounds.

Meanwhile, the LTTE Peace Secretariat in a statement alleged that the military had launched a massive campaign of carnage in Vanni as the people and the LTTE began their three days of “Maveerar commemoration” on November 25.

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