Lalith Veeraraj, the Jaffna district organiser of the Movement for People’s Struggle, a JVP dissident group and his friend Kugan Murugananthan, who were reported missing in Achchuveali on Friday are feared killed, according to the MPS faction of the JVP which staged a press conference in Jaffna on Saturday.
Lalith Veeraraj has been involved in bringing out the news regarding the missing persons, political prisoners and abductions in Jaffna, Ki’linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, Mannaar and Vavuniyaa during the past months and had been warned several times by the SL intelligence operatives not to get involved in the missing persons issue.
Mr. Veeraraj and Mr. Muruganathan, left the house from Aavarangkaal Sivan temple area around 5:00 p.m. in a motorbike with registration number NPGT-7852.
Now, his party officials say they were receiving phone calls from within the SLA establishment saying that Veeraraj has been assassinated, according to Chamira Koswatte, the convenor of the Movement for People’s Struggle.
Mr. Veeraraj was working on staging a press conference for the JVP dissidents group. But, the press conference itself on Saturday turned out to be a meeting on his disappearance.
Regardless of his party affiliation with the JVP or now the dissident group, both of which fail in recognising the Tamil national question, Mr. Veeraraj and his friends were voicing for the rights of the missing persons and was maintaining good contacts with Tamil parliamentarians on the missing persons issue.
Some time back, when he went to discuss with Mrs. Pathmini Sithamparanathan, he was attacked by a gang believed to be an squad operated by the SL military intelligence.
Mr. Veeraraj is born to a Tamil father and a Sinhala mother.
TN