File photograph: Sri Lankan military conducting raids across Jaffna earlier this year
Sri Lankan security forces have arrested more than a dozen Tamil youth on charges of attempting to “regroup the LTTE,” as a military crackdown took place in the North this week.
Amongst those arrested is a 17-year-old Tamil child, reports the Sunday Times.
25-year-old Navaratnam Dilaksan was another Tamil youth arrested on Monday, by the Sri Lankan authorities. Dilaksan’s brother is forcibly disappeared and he has taken part in several protests demanding information on his whereabouts.
An arrest sheet alleges that he was attempting to revive the LTTE, which was militarily defeated by the Sri Lankan state more than 11 years ago, in an offensive that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils at Mullivaikkal.
Sri Lankan security forces have carried out an increasing number of raids across the North-East, with as many as 22 people arrested under similar charges in recent weeks. The raids have been accompanied by a rise in state violence, with several incidents of police brutality and a Tamil man shot dead by the Sri Lankan army last week.
Meanwhile, the military presence in the region has increased with more checkpoints being set up across the Tamil homeland.
