Crime wave sweeps North Lanka

P K Balachandran - Jaffna and Vavuniya districts in Sri Lanka’s Tamil speaking Northern Province have become a happy hunting ground for ransom seekers and house breakers who do not hesitate to murder their victims. Incidents of murder and abduction for gain have mounted in the past few weeks, reaching a peak now, says M V Kanamylenathan, editor of Jaffnabased `Uthayan’ daily.

Mavai Senathirajah MP and leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has said that it is time a public interest petition was filed to get the law enforcement authorities, including the Sri Lankan army, to arrest the culprits. Every Tamil daily has written angry editorials calling for action.

Among the high profile cases listed by Senathirajah, are the abduction and killing of T Kapilanath, school going son of a leading businessman of Chaavakkachcheri for ransom on March 14. This was followed by the abduction and murder of Krishnagopalan, a student of Vavuniya on March 23. In Achchuveli, house breakers killed a woman while robbing her jewellery. A woman war refugee was abducted and raped in Maanippai on April 18. In the Thirunaavukkulam area of Vavuniya, robbers broke into a house and attacked a mother and her nine-year old girl child with sharp instruments. The girl subsequently died.

According to Kanamylenathan, chain snatching has made Jaffna women avoid deserted areas and many men too avoid going out after dark.

The Tamil daily `Sudar Oli’ said in an editorial on April 29, that the fact that these crimes were being committed with impunity showed that the perpetrators enjoyed the patronage of the powers-that-be.

But Kanamylenathan said that arrests were now being made, thanks to public pressure.

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