Family man abducted in ‘white-van’ in Jaffna
A middle-aged family man has been abducted on Sunday (April 10) in Jaffna by a group of men who have come in civvies in a white-van. His whereabouts remains unknown.
According to legal sources in Jaffna, Rajadurai Jeyanthan was at his home at Nunavil South, Chavakachcheri when the group men in civvies, claiming to be from the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) took him away in a white van – a notorious mode of transport of “unidentified men” to carry out abductions during and after the war.
The abductors have neither given his family a note of acknowledgement nor explained the reason for the arrest.
The sources also said that the Rajathurai Jeyanthan was among those who had gone through the government’s ‘rehabilitation’ program after the end of the war.
His wife told Ceylon News on Wednesday that the abductors have only given her a telephone number and when contacted (via that number) she was asked to come the CID office in Ariyalai, near the Jaffna town.
“First two men in civvies came in motorbike were talking to him after confirming his identity. They said they were from the CID. Few minutes later a group of men, also in civvies, came in a white-van and checked the house before taking my husband away handcuffed,” the terrified wife said via phone.
“When we went to Ariyalai, we were not allowed to see him, instead were told to go to a CID office in Vavuniya. When we went to Vavuniya on the next day, we were told that my husband has been moved to Boosa. We have not heard of him since his abduction,” she told Ceylon News via phone.
The police in Jaffna have refused to entertain a complaint in this regard, instead the family has been told to be in touch with the Ariyalai CID.
Both in Ariyalai and in Vavuniya the so-called CID offices were functioning in abandoned houses without any hoarding and all the men were seen in civvies.
The latest incident has come barely a couple of weeks after the government troops on a tip off recovered a suicide jacket and explosives from a house also in Chavakachcheri.
“White-van” became a verb during the former regime of strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa. Dozens of political opponents and dissidents who were abducted and driven away in ubiquitous “white vans” were thought to have been killed by groups closely linked to the military. Those “white-vanned” seldom turned up alive.
The Ranil-Sirisena government has constantly been denying reports of white operations and abductions in the country. There is no immediate reaction from the government regarding this incident.
