By IANS
Colombo : Three Sri Lankan Tamil political parties Monday urged President Mahinda Rajapakse to release immediately all Tamil innocent civilians arrested following last week’s bomb blasts here.
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) said the mass arrests of Tamils would only defeat the government’s war against terrorism.
Media reports say some 1,500 Tamils have been arrested from Colombo and elsewhere in the country in the wake of last week’s two blasts in Colombo that killed at least 20 people including a suicide bomber.
The bombings have been credited to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
In an open letter to Rajapakse, party leaders V. Anandasangaree (TULF), D. Sitharthan (PLOTE) and T. Sritharan (EPRLF) said: “We wish to lodge our strong protest against the manner in which thousands of Tamil youths are arrested in cordon and search operations and detained.”
They said the arrests would “not serve the purpose for which it is intended and will prove counter productive. It will only strengthen the claims of the LTTE and pro-LTTE elements that the government is harassing innocent Tamil people”.
The three leaders said that since LTTE operatives in places like Colombo were normally armed with numerous identities, it was hardly possible to detect them.
“Ultimately it is the innocent ones who suffer for running away from the LTTE’s clutches into the arms of the government, seeking protection.”
The three parties said if and when the innocent Tamils were released, they were likely to be viewed with suspicion by their Sinhalese and Muslim neighbours in Colombo.
“This is what the LTTE exactly wants and the government unconsciously fell into their trap.”
They said while the authorities should continue their search operations, no one should detained unnecessarily even for a day.
“Please order the release of all those who have proper identities immediately. Those in doubt could be detained till their identities are proved. Please have a team of retired judge to go into the documents of identity available with those who are detained and if their identities are in doubt.”