A 46-year-old man has been arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) over the alleged circulation of false and unverified claims that an LTTE training camp was operating in the north of the country.
According to the Police Media Division, the suspect was taken into custody on Tuesday, August 18, following an investigation into a video posted on social media and remarks he made at a media briefing. Police said he alleged that an LTTE training camp was being run inside the Palai forest reserve, within the Akkarayankulam police division.
Police said the information the suspect circulated had not been verified or substantiated. The man, a resident of Bellanwila in Boralesgamuwa, was due to be produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Police said legal action will be taken against him under the provisions of the Penal Code and the Police Ordinance.
The arrest follows the government’s public rejection of the claim. Officials denied earlier this week that any LTTE training facility was operating in Pallai, describing the assertions circulating on social media as baseless.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were militarily defeated in May 2009, ending a civil war of more than 25 years. Periodic claims of LTTE regrouping surface on social media and are routinely denied by the security establishment, which has in recent years pursued cases against those it accuses of spreading unverified material capable of causing communal alarm.
