Sri Lanka:18 Young men and women from Eastern Province arrested and detained under PTA

17/12/2020

18  young people from  Kattankudy, Eastern province, Sri Lanka have been arrested and detained under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act according to reports reaching Sri Lanka Brief. All of them were arrested by the Counter Terrorism Investigation Division of the Sri Lanka Police in the last week of November 2020.

At the time of arrest, families of the arrested individuals were informed that the reason for the arrest was that those individuals were connected with a social media group based in India.

All these individuals have been arrested and detained based on the information received from Indian intelligence, arresting officers have told their families. But no credible evidence to support their claim has been shown.

It seems that no one knows the real reason for these arrests.

It’s been more than three weeks since the arrests. There are women and young adults aged 20 among them. Some of the families of arrested individuals were informed that their relatives had been transferred to the head office of CTID in Colombo for further questioning.

Under the PTA anyone can be arrested and detained for 18 months without trial. Some families of the arrested individuals insist that their relative was arrested and is being detained based on false accusations, hope that their relatives will be released immediately.

The family members have logged complaining of the arrests to the  Batticaloa branch of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.

This incident hasn’t been reported yet on any news media platforms, sources in Kattankudu told Sri Lanka Brief.

All of them were arrested on different days of the last week of November. The CTID officers who came for the inquiry said they were arresting these individuals based on the information received from Indian Intelligence.

The majority of the families of the arrested have lodged a complaint against this arbitrary arrest with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.