Deadly game of abductions continues

By Asif Fuard

Kanapathipallai Pakiyaraja

As mystery surrounds the spree of abductions that has plagued the country the past months, more abductions are being reported. This time, a prominent leader of PLOTE (People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam) and his assistant had been abducted and their bodies found on the roadsie. They were abducted on Wednesday and their bodies were found on Friday.

Kanapathipallai Pakiyaraja alias Raj Mama, the PLOTE political head for Puttalam district and his assistant Rajendran alias Karikalan were at Mr. Pakiyaraja’s house when the abductors came in a white tinted-glass vehicle.

The abductors were armed with T-56 assault rifles, 9mm hand guns and grenades according to a sole eyewitness. The six abductors clad in civilian clothing had got down from the van and had asked the PLOTE leader and his assistant to get into the vehicle. At first they had refused. Then the abductors had reportedly claimed to be part of a special police unit.

According to the eyewitness the abductors had even shown an identity card purported to be an official identity card and had told Mr. Pakiyaraja that they wanted to ask him a few questions. The two had then got into the vehicle.

As there were no signs of them for hours the PLOTE members of the Puttalam district immediately lodged a complaint at the Puttalam police station. They had even organized search parties . PLOTE leader Dharmalingam Sidharthan informed President Mahinda Rajapaksa about the abduction and he in turn had ordered IGP Victor Perera to launch a probe into the abduction.

However by Friday evening the Galgamuwa police had identified two bodies that were found dumped outside a garage as that of PLOTE Puttalam leader and his assistant. The two had been killed by shots fired from a 9mm in execution style.

Senior Superintendent for the Nikavaratiya police division Kithsiri Dayananda told The Sunday Times he has appointed a special team to probe the killings. “The Puttalam police division is investigating the abduction and we are investigating the double homicide. We are in the process of recording statements and gathering evidence,” SSP Dayananda said.

The Sunday Times learns that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is due to take over the probe and will be sending a team to Puttalam. Mr. Pakiyaraja (45) a farther of a six year old girl joined the PLOTE in 1983 under the leadership of Uma Maheswaran. He was part of the first batch of PLOTE militants that went to Tamil Nadu, India to receive weapons training from the Indian Intelligence RAW. He also took part in the military coup of 1988 where the PLOTE attempted to overthrow the Maldivian dictator Abdul Gayoom.

After the 2002 February ceasefire agreement between the government and the LTTE several PLOTE members have been targeted by the Tigers. After the 2002 CFA 30 PLOTE members have been killed by the LTTE while four have been abducted.

According to police sources about 12 people have been abducted in Jaffna over the past week. In these incidents too the abductors arrived in a tinted glassed white van. Over the past three months the one man commission, the Special Presidential Investigation on Disappearances of People led by former retired High Court Judge Mahanama Tillakaratne has received about 100 complaints of disappearances islandwide.

The Sunday Times learns that most of the complaints made to the commission had mentioned the involvement of armed persons clad in camouflage uniform similar to that of the STF or the Army. The one man commission has revealed that in some cases the person or persons had voluntarily got into the vehicle of the abductors as he had known someone in it.

In one of the latest cases a Tamil businessman who was abducted from Matara was released yesterday on the payment of a ransom after being held for a week in Welikanda, Pollonnaruwa.
He was identified as Thirunavakarasu Puvaneshawaran.

In September a jewellery shop owner from sea street, Egamparam Palanivel, his son and two others were abducted as they refused to pay money to a person who tried to extort him. Many Tamil businessmen have moved to other areas and some have fled to India in fear. Several Tamil Members of Parliament have blamed government forces for these abductions.

In early October four people had arrived in a white van at a shop in Pettah and demanded to see the Tamil owner reportedly to extort money. A parliamentarian, who was informed about this visit had immediately passed on the information to the police. When the police arrived they found that the four men were from the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) in Dematagoda.