Namal and colleagues in custody!

Namal and colleagues in custody!

11.05 pm Update

Namal Rajapaksa and the other 6 persons taken into custody have been ordered by the Magistrate to be remanded until next 16th.

9.15 pm

According to a calling to be interrogated in association with a protest launched on October 6th

in Hambanthota town against granting Mattala Airport to India on a long-term lease, Member of Parliament Namal Rajapaksa and others who presented themselves to Hambanthota Police were taken into custody.

Members of Parliament D.V. Withana and Prasanna Ranaweera who accompanied MP Namal Rajapaksa to Hambanthota Police Headquarters were among those  who were taken into police custody. Others who comprise those taken into custody are Provincial Council members Upali Kodikkara, Sampath Athukorala and Major Ajith Prasanna. Attorney-at-Law , Premanath Dolawatta announced that the aforementioned 6 persons were taken into custody by Hambanthota Police.

28 individuals were arrested on October 6th itself under the offence of being actively participating in the above-stated opposition campaign for having "behaved in an aggressive manner". This protest was organised by the United Opposition and in order to disperse the protestors the police had to fire tear gas cannons and in the heated circumstances that flared up, 3 police officers sustained injuries, it was reported.