“In the last two months alone, about 40 to 45 Tamil youths have been arrested and imprisoned under the Terrorism Act for allegedly resurrecting the LTTE,” said Rishad Bathiudeen, leader of the All Ceylon Muslim Congress.
He emphasized that the LTTE’s victims were children as young as 10 years old at the end of the war in 2009.
Joining the debate on the Ministry of Justice Expenditure Heads Debate on December 09, Bathiudeen called on the government to release the 20-22 year old Tamil youth whom he had spoken to while in prison.
“At the end of the war in 2009, about 12,000 LTTE cadres surrendered to the army. They were reintegrated into society, but the Tamil youth arrested under the Terrorism Act due to minor issues have been imprisoned for a long time without filing any case and the government should pay attention to them as well, ”said the leader of the All Ceylon Muslim Congress.
Minister Namal Rajapaksa has also spoken about these prisoners in recent times, but he has pointed out that no justice has been done to them.
“As many as 4,045 Muslim youths have been arrested since the Easter Sunday attacks, of which about 250 have now been jailed for two years for attending a Saharan class one day,” said Bathiudeen.
The MP is requesting the government to release these Muslim youths on bail.