Northern public warned

The public in Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya and Jaffna districts have been warned against an organized ring of swindlers who play to exploit grievances or concerns of war-affected Northern civilians, including parents who have not yet been able to trace the whereabouts of those missing.

Evidence about such fraudulent practices came to light recently at Kanakapuram,

Kilinochchi when Police assisted by Security Forces arrested three suspects, involved in an attempt of extorting ransom from over 300 relatives of missing persons promising to obtain their release on November 14, 2010.

Security Forces in 57 Division were told on November 7 that an imposter, claiming to be ‘Major Seelan in the Army’ had allegedly revealed that about 2,000 missing persons were still being detained by him and preparations were on to release them back to relatives on November 14 at 6.00 am against payments, earlier prescribed separately to each of those relatives.

The imposter after giving a mobile phone number to the aggrieved, had appointed school principals at Akkarayan Tamil Mixed Maha Vidyalaya, Akkarayan Maha Vidyalaya, Kilinochchi Maha Vidyalaya, Urthipuram Maha Vidyalaya, Kanakapuram Maha Vidyalaya and Kilinochchi Hindu Maha Vidyalaya for coordination adding more weight and confidence to the fraud.

Major Seelan on November 14 however failed to show up before some 300 relatives of the missing who had gathered at Kanakapuram Maha Vidyalaya to receive their released family members against promised ransoms, but had dispatched three representatives, P Nimalan (Nirveli, Jaffna) J Kumareshan (Mallavi) and A Srikanthan (Puthukudiyiruppu) to collect extortions and ransom money. Kilinochchi Police working in cooperation with Security Forces and the school principals arrested the three swindlers.

The Kilinochchi Police have commenced investigations into the fraud.

Several individual and separate instances of this nature and abduction attempts, most of them using mobile phones, have been reported in the recent past. The Police in Jaffna town, Point Pedro, Chavakachcheri, Manipai, Arali, Pallai, Vadukkotai, Kayts, Ellapanmaradankulam, Vavuniya and Mallavi are investigating into those complaints.