Uneasy calm in Nintavur with heavy police presence

Afear psychosis still prevails in Nintavur, in the Ampara area, despite civilians gradually returning to their normal routine, following a tense situation in the area earlier this week.

“People are living in fear, many of the villagers, especially the men, don’t sleep at night as they take turns to keep watch over their community” Nintavur Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman, M.A.M. Thahir said.

The tense situation occurred on Sunday night when members of the Nintavur community keeping watch in the area due to a rise in robberies, apprehended two individuals believed to be robbers, and handed them over to the police.

The police released them on establishing that they were Special Task Force (STF) members deployed in civvies, for covert investigation.

The villagers took to the streets on Monday, protesting the police ac- tion, claiming it was the STF which was involved in the robberies. The protesters blocked off a five-km stretch of the AkkaraipattuKalmunai Road in Nintavur for over 36 hours, and were finally dispersed by police using tear gas. Nintavur Divisional Secretary, R.U. Abdul Jaleel confirmed this situation, adding that she received several complaints regarding minor incidents in the area.

“The police are vigilant and are conducting surveillance in the area but they are not quite familiar with the internal byroad network, so it’s a difficult job” she said.

Ms. Jaleel also said that the situation in the town area has improved since Monday, and most shops were open. “People are still cautious with the number of people coming into town being reduced, although transport services have returned to normal. We have observed a reduction in the number of visitors to this office, compared with other days,” she said.

Meanwhile, Nintavur Jummah Mosque Secretary, M.A.M. Razeen said that life was slowly returning to normal since the unrest on Monday.

However, he pointed out that, despite heightened police surveillance with three mobile units patrolling the area, there were a few minor incidents even on Thursday night as well.

"Following discussions on Friday, Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Samanthurai police promised to further beef-up security in the area to deter any acts of vandalism or civil unrest," he said.

“A special committee has been appointed by the police under DIG D. Idran to investigate the alleged involvement of the STF,” said police spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana.

“STF members in civvies were deployed in the area to investigate the issue. The two ‘suspects’ the villagers caught were two such STF members. They were not arrested by the police. But if there is any involvement of the STF in the robberies, they will be severely dealt with,” he said.

On Friday the 14 suspects who were in remand were released on bail of Rs 50,000 each. Earlier in the week six individuals under the age of 18, out of the 20 suspects who were arrested in connection to the incident were released.