‘I do not know his whereabouts’ – Wife pleads for release of husband arrested over Facebook post

A Tamil woman has demanded the release of her husband, who was arrested by Sri Lankan authroties last week after allegedly posting an image of LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran on his Facebook page.

Sri Lankan police in Vaharai arrested 30-year-old Kumaradasar Vijayadasar on November 27th, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He was taken from his home during dinner and initially questioned on the road of his residence.

“The police stated they’ll take him outside to the roadside and talk to him, but when I went to go and check they weren’t there,” Vijayadasar’s wife Bhavanitha told reporters. “I went to the police station to ask for him and was only allowed to see him at around 12 am.”

“He was kept in Vaharai police station for two nights and three days,” she continued.

“The police did not deliver him in court as mentioned. Instead, they took him to the Judge’s residence in Oddamavadi. Someone in the neighbourhood that was recently released revealed that he is being detained in solitary confinement in Kalmunai. I do not know his whereabouts. We have not been informed by authorities. Despite many attempts, we finally got a lawyer and tried to fight his case, but the police said that they would not release him.”

The father of one, a fisherman hailing from Vakarai, Batticaloa is reportedly booked to appear in court on December 12th.

The arrest was one of several carried out by Sri Lankan security forces this week, as the military launched a crackdown across the North-East.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button