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Mr. Gunaratnam is the leader of a breakaway faction of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). His radical splinter group, the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), claimed that Mr. Gunaratnam and women's wing leader Dimuthu Atigala had been taken away by security authorities ahead of the party's formal launch on Monday. Mr. Gunaratnam was subsequently deported to Australia whereas Atigala was released and sent back to the party headquarters at Madiwela. .jpg)
The regular accounts of human rights violations and the rise in abductions and disappearances are a cause for concern. Between October last year and April this year, there has been a disturbing increase in the number of abductions, especially in and around Colombo. Twenty nine disappearances (including an attempted abduction) have been reported in the media between February and March this year. There have been fifteen in March and fourteen in February. This brings the total number of disappearances reported in the last six months to fifty six. Add the disappearances of Gunaratnam and Atigala, the total amounts to 58. Out of the 29 disappearances in February and March this year, 16 had occurred in the Colombo district while eight had been reported from the Northern Province and five from the North. The abductions in the North are said to be of ex-LTTE cadres who had been detained and released according to a list of abductions made available on the widely read Sri Lankan website, Groundviews.
