Vavuniya prison riot:

‘Strings pulled by international Tiger network’

Yasaratne GAMAGE

Police have gathered information that the recent unrest in the Vavuniya Prison was a conspiracy with links to the international Tiger network and it was the same evil forces that tried to mask the particular incident by Vavuniya prison inmates, as a humanitarian act, Police Media S pokesman SP Ajith Rohana in a special press release announced yesterday.

The incident occurred when three prison officials were held hostage for 19 hours by inmates during a protest by prisoners at the Vavuniya remand prison against the transfer of a suspected LTTE prisoner to another location, The suspect who was a former LTTE leader was being transferred on a court order to be handed over to the Terrorism Investigation Unit. Later in an operation led by the STF, the three prison officials were rescued and 64 mobile phones and 34 SIM cards seized from the possession of the inmates.

The suspect Nadaraja Saravanabawan alias Seettu was directly involved in terrorist attacks carried out by LTTE. The Police Spokesman revealed that Nadaraja was involved in bombing a vehicle bearing number 58-9203, on May 27, 2006 in Wipattu Reserve killing seven civilians.

The police has filed a case in the Nochchiyagma Magistrate’s Court with file no. B 452/2006. The dead included , Darrel C Perera, Ashirwadan, Chandran Ashirwadan of Colombo, Nandana Abeysuriya and Henry Hema Abeysuriya of Nugegoda and Anura Dissanayake of Wipattu. The suspect was also responsible for setting up a claymore mine on December 23, 2005 targetting a bus that was transporting Navy personnel. Thirteen Navy personnel died and another four were injured in the incident. A case has been filed against the suspect in the Mannar Magistrate’s Court under file no.403/2005.

In addition to that, he is alleged to have been responsible for a number of terrorist activities where innocent civilians and soldiers were killed and injured.