The Jaffna Magistrate, M

The Jaffna Magistrate, M. Ilanchezhiyan, ordered the arrest of seven Government troopers - two captains, two lieutenants, two reserve police constables and a soldier - for their alleged involvement in the disappearance and murder of civilians in the northern Jaffna peninsula. The arrests were ordered after 16 skeletal remains were unearthed from sites identified by a former Lance Corporal, Somaratne Rajapakse, sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a sixteen-year old Jaffna school student, Krishanthy Kumaraswamy. The arrest order was the second to be handed down in cases relating to disappearances in the Jaffna Peninsula. In the Krishanthy Kumaraswamy case, six security personnel were sentenced to death for the kidnapping, rape and murder of the student and for the abduction and murder of her mother and relatives who had gone to inquire about her.