Following the “abduction” of senior lecturers, student leaders, and others by police personnel in civilian attire, Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament M. A. Sumanthiran warned the Sri Lankan Minister of Public Security not to bring back memories of “white van culture”.
“Why do they have to come in civvies? Why do they have to come in white vans? You are reminding them of the white van culture; you want to tell the country – “remember we did this earlier we have brought it back” you want to bring back those memories. You want to instill fear into people’s mind, and that is why you are doing this,” the MP said in the Parliament yesterday.
“This is a very serious issue. It only shows a thorough breakdown of the law and order situation in this country. I don’t know why we even have a minister called a public security minister,” Sumanthiran said.
The MP also spoke about the Navy’s alleged abduction of 11 youths.
“You know very well, how they abducted 11 students, young people in Colombo, purely for ransom. And what do we have today? Those persons who were suspected, main suspects are not being prosecuted. The Hon. Attorney general is not acting independently, he’s looking for orders from above and granting all those that the executive wants,” he stated.
Sumanthiran further raised the question of how such abductions can go unpunished and unprosecuted.
