A former Sri Lankan army soldier and lawyer has commenced a protest outside the Swiss embassy in Colombo, demanding the victim of an abduction last week be interviewed by Sri Lankan authorities.

The Sri Lankan military’s Major (Rtd.) Attorney-at-Law Ajith Prasanna began his protest this morning, with a placard that states:

“The Ambassador of Swisterland, do not tarnish the good name of my motherland. Let the lady to give a statement to the Sri Lanka police”. (sic)

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader Vaiko has slammed the Indian governments announcement that it will provide over $450 in credit for development and security despite concerns over the newly appointed Sri Lankan president’s human rights record.

Thirty-five years ago, while many slept and some were already in the fields, the Sri Lankan army declared a sudden curfew in the town of Cheddikulam and surrounding villages on the border of Vavuniya district.

As news of the curfew seeped through the town through radio and word of mouth, residents scrambled to their homes or the closest house of someone they knew so as not to be caught outside.

Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, has arrived in Sri Lanka for a two-day state visit after the election of Gotabaya Rajapksa.

The massacre of 12 civilians by the Sri Lankan air force was commemorated in Oddusuddan, Mullaitivu on November 27.

The twelve were killed in an air raid on Oddusuddan on November 27, 1990. 

The Sri Lankan government has dismissed information given by Swiss authorities regarding the abduction and threatening of an embassy employee in Colombo last week, and instead called for the victim to be questioned by the Sri Lankan security forces.

Sri Lanka’s newly appointed defence secretary Kamal Gunaratne, who stands accused of overseeing war crimes, met with Switzerland’s ambassador to Sri Lanka and claimed that the information they were given by Swiss authorities “did not in any way correspond with the actual movements of the alleged victim”.

A statement from Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Relations went on to say,

A senior police officer in Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) who had been investigating high profile cases, has been transferred reports Colombo Gazette, as fears of a purge under Sri Lanka’s new president Gotabaya Rajapaksa continue.

Though his transfer is awaiting approval, it comes in the face of B S Tissera’s high profile work, which has seen him investigate the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga and the assault on journalist Keith Noyahr and Upali Tennakoon. Noyahr who survived described his treatment to that of the white van abductions rumoured to be ordered by the former defence secretary and present-day President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The National Investigation Agency of India (NIA) carried out raids in Thanjavur and Tiruchirapalli this week, as they detained two men over suspected links to the Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Colombo and Batticaloa that killed hundreds of people.

The two men are reportedly linked to accomplices of Zahran Hashim, the alleged mastermind behind the Easter bombing attacks.

The NIA’s actions follow the arrest of Mohammed Azarudheen and Shiek Hidayathulla on June 12 and cases being registered against six persons on May 30 from Coimbatore.

An NIA spokesman stated that their actions had been as a result of searches across social media platforms.

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa dismissed accusations that he had played a role in the thousands of abductions that took place through infamous ‘white vans’, claiming that they were all “bogus allegations”.

Rajapaksa spoke with The Hindu’s Suhasini Haidar and also said that he was against devolving police powers in accordance with the Sri Lankan constitution’s 13th amendment, instead claiming he was "willing to discuss alternatives”.

When asked to give assurances that disappearances and violence against journalists would not return, he said, “those are bogus allegations, and certainly nothing of the sort was done by me”.

Tamil activists arrested by Malaysian authorities have complained of mistreatment, torture and intimidation from security forces, which includes forced confessions and threats to their families.

A lawyer for one of the arrested men, 57-year-old grocery store owner B Subramaniam, said “during the arrest and subsequent detention for 21 days, he was tortured and forced to say ‘I am an LTTE member’”.

“He faced all sorts of threats, including a threat that he would be sent to prison for life if he didn’t do this (what was asked by the police),” lawyer S Selvam added.