Fourteen Karuna men arrested in Hinguragoda are released on bail
Hinguragoda police arrested fourteen Tamil men hiding with weapons in a Buddhist temple. They had in their possession three T56 rifles, one T81 special attack rifle, one 9MM pistol, and six grenades. The police also took a van and a car belonging to them from the temple.
The temple, which is called the Pothirukkarama Vihara, is in Hinguragoda in the Polonnaruwa district. It is noteworthy, that the chief priest of this temple stood for the last parliamentary elections under Jathika Hela Urumaya party, which is a political party of Buddhist monks. The police rounded up the temple at 5:00 PM on Monday, on information given to them, and arrested the men. The chief priest was not at the temple at this time. Polonnaruwa district borders onto the Batticaloa district. One of the fourteen men is supposed to have stayed in this temple for a week. Initially the police said that they could not conduct an inquiry because the men did not know Sinhalese language. Yet, it is also reported that the men have said that they were staying at the temple in order to proceed to Thoppigala in Batticaloa. The chief priest has told the police that he gave refuge to the men on request from the Jathika Hela Urumaya headquarters and that he was not aware that the men were carrying weapons. Other reports have noted that the US trained Special Task Force was camped at this temple until recently and this force was responsible for the deep penetrating military activities conducted in the LTTE controlled areas of Batticaloa in the past. The Sri Lankan military intelligence wing has been putting constant pressure on the police to release the fourteen men. However, since reports about the arrest has become known to the public, the police have apparently cooked up a new story around the arrest in order to release the men on what can appear to be legal grounds. Accordingly, the fourteen men were brought to the Polonnaruwa magistrate court. The magistrate court does not have the authority to release on bail those arrested with dangerous weapons. However, the police placed a new explanation at the courts, which said that the men were arrested at a location in the temple that is different from the location where the weapons were found. The police submitted that since these men were arrested without any weapons in their possession, the police have no objection to releasing them on bail. Therefore the judge released all fourteen men on bail for Rs2500 each and postponed the case.
07 July 2004
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Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
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