Tamil MP in Sri Lanka Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam says he fears arrest

A Tamil member in 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 Peoples Front (TNPF), said the police in the Maruthenkerni division in the northern Jaffna districts Vadamarachchi had informed him that they wanted to question and possibly arrest him.

“I was asked to produce myself at the Maruthenkerni police at the earliest,” he tweeted.

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.

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.