Colombo: Sri Lanka Navy has detained a family of five who were trying to enter the country via sea after staying in India as refugees for a few years, the police said on Friday.
Police spokesman and superintendent Ajith Rohana said the family members were arrested on Thursday off the coast of Talaimannar in the north as they were returning via sea. They had fled to India in 2004 from Mannar and spent time in Rameshwaram. The Navy intercepted their boat on Thursday.
The family members included three youths aged 21, 19 and 15 years and their parents aged 44 and 38, Mr Rohana said. The motive of their fleeing Sri Lanka would be investigated, he said.
There was a large influx from Sri Lanka’s north and east to Rameshwaram by boats during the decisive military clashes between the LTTE and the Army five years ago.
Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan nationalist party has asked Norway to immediately handover an Oslo-based LTTE leader to face a criminal trial in the country. In a letter written to the Norwegian ambassador, the Jathika Hela Urumaya also known as the National Heritage Party accused Perinpana-yagam Sivaparan, alias Nediyavan, of conducting terrorist activities against Sri Lanka.
“We urge Norway to immediately handover Nediyavan to Sri Lankan authorities so that he can be tried for all his many crimes against the state of Sri Lanka and the people of Sri Lanka,” JHU chief Champika Ranawaka wrote in the letter.
According to Mr Ranawaka, Nediyavan, LTTE’s top military leader, lives freely in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Mr Ranawaka accused Nediyavan of conducting terrorist activities against Sri Lanka. He said that recent investigations have confirmed Nediyavan’s involvement in attempts to revive the LTTE. Mr Ranawaka is also a minister in the President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government.
