A former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam deported from India after completing a 10-year prison sentence there has been detained for 72 hours by the Terrorism Investigation Division on arrival at Bandaranaike International Airport.

The suspect is 50 years old and a resident of Masiyapitti, Sandilipay, in the Jaffna district. He landed at Katunayake on the night of 26 October, and a team of TID officers took him into custody as he arrived, the Daily Mirror reported on Tuesday evening.

Hiru News reported the same arrest an hour and a half earlier, and attributes the account to the Police Media Division — an attribution the Daily Mirror does not carry. The two filings agree on every detail: the age, the home village, the arrival date, the length of the Indian sentence and the duration of the detention order.

The Indian conviction

He was arrested by Indian security forces in 2015 on an allegation of attempting to reorganise the LTTE, and was tried and convicted by an Indian court. The sentence was 10 years. He was deported to Sri Lanka on its completion.

Neither newsroom names him, and neither specifies where in India he was held or which agency conducted the original investigation.

The detention order

The TID has obtained a 72-hour detention order to question him further. Both outlets say the questioning follows information provided by intelligence services about the suspect, and that TID investigations are continuing.

A 72-hour detention order is the standard initial holding period available to investigators; it is distinct from the extended executive detention powers proposed in the Prevention of Organised Crimes Bill and the terrorism bill now before Parliament, neither of which is in force.

Not reported

Neither filing says whether the man will be produced before a magistrate at the end of the 72 hours, whether any charge is contemplated in Sri Lanka, or what the intelligence information concerned. Nor does either say whether his deportation was routine removal at the end of a sentence or carried out under a specific Indian order.