Vavuniya prison hostage drama:

Prisoners’ outside contacts held

Satellite phone used for overseas communications :

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

Three persons who had links with inmates of Vavuniya Remand Prison were arrested by Vavuniya Police. Special Task Force (STF) Commandant DIG R W M C Ranawana said Vavuniya Police arrested one female and two males providing “outdoor” information to Vavuniya prisoners through hand phones outside the prison. Police also seized two hand phones and one satellite phone from the suspects’ possession. They also took into custody 51 hand phones used by prisoners of the Vanuniya Remand Prison.

They seized a large number of hand phone Sim cards and 30 additional phone batteries from inside the prison.

The STF suspects the prisoners and the arrested suspects were using the hand phones to exchange day to day information and the satellite phone discovered, would have been used to contact international organisations.

According to Ranawana, there were 198 prisoners of whom 28 are former LTTE cadres.

The STF suspects they may have been communicating with international bodies. STF officials also found huge stocks of food items including rice, noodles and flour sufficient for three months.

The STF has disconnected the supply of food, water and electricity to the prison during Friday’s hostage drama.

However, they found there was enough food and water in the prison to last two to three months.

It was also discovered the hunger strike of the prisoners was a farce since they had meals inside the prison while rejecting the regular meals provided by the prison.

The prisoners in the Vavuniya Prison have been transferred to the Anuradhapura Prison.

Discussions are on to consider the possibility of relocating the Vavuniya Prison to an isolated area, the STS Commandant said. Around 200 STF troops attached to the Special Weapons and Tactics team and teams from the Vanuniya STF Camp took part in Friday’s hostage mission under the leadership of ASP Sylvester Wijesinghe and ASP S N Gunaratne.

Police, Prison and Army personnel also participated on the direction of Northern Province Senior DIG Gamini Silva, Vavuniya SSP Hematha Adhikari and Brigadier Upul Vithanage.