by Shamindra Ferdinando
Police handed over six suspects arrested following the contentious raid on a Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) safe house in Athurugiriya, to the military police on a government directive. The six suspects, including a Tamil civilian and a commissioned officer in the army all part of a deep penetration unit of the army, were handed over to the military police Sunday afternoon in Kandy, according to ministerial and security sources.

Previous to the handover of the suspects Defence Minister Tilak Marapone met with a senior military officer-in-charge of troops in Kandy. The handover was directed as no evidence of illegal activity were found against anyone of the six men under arrest.

The six men who were handed are currently held in two military camps in Kandy, the soldiers and civilian in one and the officer in another. The suspects in the custody of the military police should be produced before the magistrate or police on request, according to the directive. Security sources said that they would be in military custody, and only produced on request.

The safe house at Athurugiriya which was raided by police on January 2, was one used by a deep penetration unit responsible for a series of successful operations behind LTTE lines.

Army’s Provost Marshal Ivan Dassanayake who headed the inquiry into the January 2 police raid on a Directorate of Military Intelligence [DMI] run safe house at Athurugiriya, submitted a preliminary report to the Defence Minister last week. This followed further questioning of the arrestees by military investigators prior to the submission of a final report. The Island, in a front-page exclusive report headlined ‘Controversy over police raid on army officer’s Millennium City residence,’ appearing on the January 4 issue, revealed the raid on the safe house, arrest of a group of covert operatives and the bid to link the group with the December 5 Udathalawinna massacre and the so called pre-poll conspiracy to mount a mine attack on the bus the UNP leader used on the campaign trail.

Senior army officers have expressed disgust at the way the detained members of the deep penetration unit were treated by the police. Insiders say that the raid and subsequent reports in the print and electronic media have destroyed one of the most secretive operations carried out by the DMI. Sources said that a close relative of one of the detained personnel had received several death threats over the telephone. "We are concerned," the sources said adding that the LTTE would now try to target the members of the group and their families.

The LTTE has accused the DMI’s deep penetration units of killing several senior LTTE cadres including a self-styled colonel who had been a member of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s inner circle. They have been also accused of making a bid on the life of so called LTTE political chief Thamilchelvam. Their operations in LTTE held areas in the north-east were believed to have created a lot of problems for the LTTE hierarchy, the sources said adding that they were recalled to Colombo after the government declared a cessation of hostilities effective midnight December 24 for a month in response to the LTTE cease-fire that came into operation at the same time.