Sri Lanka slaps 10-hour curfew for Tiger hunt

Sri Lanka slaps 10-hour curfew for Tiger hunt
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

COLOMBO, JAN 22: A 10-hour curfew was underway near the Sri Lankan capital on Saturday as police and soldiers kept up a house-to-house search for suspected Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said.

The snap curfew announced over state radio was aimed at helping security authorities to conduct a cordon and search operation to look for members of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), officials said.

The Kolonnawa suburb of the capital was also brought under curfew in addition to the district of Gampaha which borders Colombo, officials said adding that the curfew was being strictly enforced. Two weeks ago, there was a similar curfew in the capital and almost all the 3,000 people rounded up for screening were freed after establishing their identities while only a handful were detained for further questioning. The latest search operation comes amid fears that the LTTE had infiltrated the city to carry out more suicide bombings.