World News | Tamil MP in Sri Lanka Says He Fears Arrest

Colombo, Jun 5 (PTI) A Tamil member of the Sri Lankan parliament on Monday said he fears arrest over his objection to the "unlawful presence" of police personnel in civil clothes who failed to provide proof of their identity during a party programme.

Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, an MP from Sri Lanka's northern region and the President of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF), said the police in the Maruthenkerni division in the northern Jaffna district's Vadamarachchi had informed him that they wanted to question and possibly arrest him.

Also Read | Nepal, India Strike Cross-border Infrastructure Deals.

"I was asked to produce myself at the Maruthenkerni police at the earliest," he said in a tweet.

Ponnambalam said he was attending a meeting of his party activists at a public playground on June 2 when he objected to the unlawful presence of policemen in civil clothes who were not able to show their identity.

Also Read | Pakistan: NAB to Probe Former PM Imran Khan’s 22 Cabinet Members in Al-Qadir Trust Corruption Case.

He said when he began questioning the policemen, one of them fled the scene.

The parliamentarian said police presence is "unlawful" in the Tamil regions.

Ponnambalam said on Twitter that the police told him that "the Speaker of Parliament has been informed of the need to question and possibly arrest me".

The TNPF said one of their leading women activists was also arrested over the same meeting, which the police have called illegal.

The Front alleged that police action to disrupt the meeting was the cause of the incident.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)