Details emerge about the 'Gunside' underground bunker where LTTE women were abducted and detained by a white van.

Trincomalee Chief Magistrate M. S. M. Samsudeen ordered that two retired female naval officers, arrested on suspicion of being involved in the abduction and disappearance of two women in the Trincomalee area during the war, be remanded until October 5.

The Magistrate also ordered that the suspects be presented for an identification parade on that day.

These two retired officers, residents of Chilaw and Haputale areas, were arrested when they appeared before the Criminal Investigation Department for another court case and were subsequently produced before the Trincomalee court.

The two women, Sasikumar Theenmoli and Mary Delsia, residents of Palayuttu, Trincomalee, were abducted on or around May 13, 2008. The Criminal Investigation Department has revealed to the court that the suspects, while in active service, held these two women at an underground facility called 'Gun Site' within the Trincomalee Naval Base and subsequently caused their disappearance. A photograph of the entrance to the 'Gun Site' underground prison camp is also published herewith.

Gun Site Camp is an underground secret detention and torture facility located within the Trincomalee Naval Base (Eastern Naval Command / SLN Dockyard). It is called “Gun Site” because it was an old gun emplacement on a small hilltop. This location, with colonial-era buildings and underground cells, receives no natural light and operated as an illegal detention center.


It is located on a small hillock within the Trincomalee Eastern Naval Command. It contains colonial-era gun emplacements and adjacent storage buildings. The underground cells receive no sunlight, and only electric lights were used at night. Former Navy Commander Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne admitted in a CID investigation in 2025 that it was not a legal prison.

This facility was operated by the “Special Intelligence Unit” and was not part of the official Naval Intelligence. The orders were given by Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake. Witnesses state that white vans were used to transport detainees and were not registered at the camp gate.



According to the statement of former Navy Commander Nishantha Ulugetenne, approximately 40-60 people (including two foreigners).
According to the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) estimate, approximately 75-100 people.
In 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances visited the site and noted that systematic torture had occurred.

Former Navy Commander Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne (Director of Naval Intelligence from 2010-2013, later 24th Navy Commander). He was arrested on July 28, 2025.

He told the CID that after assuming office in 2010, he visited Gun Site with the written permission of then Navy Commander Somathilaka Dissanayake, and that there were 40-60 detainees there.

From August 2008 to February 2009, 11 young men (Tamil, Muslim, and Sinhala) were abducted from Colombo and its surrounding areas, money was demanded, and they later disappeared. They were initially taken to the “Pittu Bambuwa” naval prison in Colombo and later transferred to Gun Site in Trincomalee. Many families received ransom demands, but most did not return.