Army investigates residences in Jaffna without the District Secretaries approval
2011-02-16
The army is being used to gather information about residents in the Nallur and Kopay divisional secretariat areas in Jaffna without the approval of the the district secretary. While the information is being collected on a Defence Ministry directive, questions have been raised as to the reason for not informing the government officials in the area about the move.
If the army is used for administrative work, the district secretary has to be informed of the move. An army officer who spoke about it said the move is aimed at identifying the persons behind the extortion, abductions and robberies that were reported from the Jaffna area.
However, he refused to comment on whether the district secretaries approval was received to carry out the information gathering work. Persons in Jaffna who were supportive of the opposition parties continued to face difficulties in the area and Jaffna residents who participated in such events were also threatened by the security forces.
