Amid preparations for major battles in the warzones of the Northeast, Sri Lanka’s hardline government launched a crackdown in the capital, Colombo, expelling thousands of Tamils and pouring security forces into the city.
Colombo city has been divided into three security zones and additional troops from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) have been deployed to check all vehicles and movement of civilians.
Anti-aircraft guns have been fitted on the top floors of about 58 storied buildings in Colombo to counter possible LTTE aerial strikes, TamilNet.
Every key junction in Colombo is being manned by SLA and SLN troops. Heavy vehicles are subjected to severe checks in a bid to catch Tamil Tiger fighters infiltrating the city.
The military and police are directed to not allow loitering on roads and junctions, TamilNet reported.
Last week the police virtually sealed Colombo for three hours to check every vehicle and passengers entering the city of 600,000 people.
Tamils staying in the Colombo “without a valid reason” are being sent back to their villages, Sri Lanka's police chief said on Friday.
Hundreds of Tamils have been asked to leave and return to their villages, some in conflict areas, because they are a “threat to national security,” Police Inspector-General Victor Perera said.
“Those who are loitering in Colombo will be sent home. We will give them transport,” Perera told reporters
“We are doing this to protect the people and because of a threat to national security.”
“Because there is no a special label to identify an LTTE terrorist and a civilian, we took the decision to send them back to their villages,” he said.
Hundreds of Tamils, many from poor rural areas, live in boarding houses in Colombo while they work or search for jobs or seek employment abroad.
Tamils are required to obtain permits to travel to the rest of the country from the police under a de facto visa system put in place to prevent Tiger Tiger fighters infiltrating Colombo.
On May 31 the authorities ordered the owners of 68 lodges in Pettah (Peaddai) Police Division in Colombo to immediately expel around 5000 Tamil tenants from Northeast and Upcountry to their “native places” within 24 hours.
Pettah Police commander, chief inspector Jayaratne, warned he would not be entertaining complaints on missing persons if the lodge owners did not adhere to the instructions from the top authorities.
However Police Chief Perera later denied such orders had been issued.
Meanwhile repeated cordon and search operations are being conducted by large numbers of security personnel.
Private homes where persons from the Northeast and upcountry areas are staying, are being subjected to careful search, police said.
In the early hours of Sunday Sri Lanka Army troops and police launched a combined cordon and search operations covering Grandpass, Fort and Maradana areas in Colombo city. An unknown number of people were arrested.
More than sixty Tamils were arrested during a cordon and search operation carried out by Sri Lanka foreces between midnight Friday and early morning Saturday in Mt Lavinia, Ratmalana, Wellawatte, Bambalapitiya, Mattakuliya, Kirilapone and Kohuwela areas.
Twelve special branch police groups participated in the search operation. Most of the arrested were from Northeast and from Hill country areas..
Those who proved their identity and provided ‘satisfactory’ reasons for their stay in the location were released after preliminary inquiry, police said.
