Defence Ministry permits to detain Hansard officer

The Defence Ministry today permitted a special police team of the Kurunegala Police to detain the senior indexing officer attached to the Hansard Department of Parliament for three months for questioning.

The ministry has made the directives under the emergency regulations. The senior indexing officer was arrested by the special police team in Kurunegala on Saturday on charges of aiding and abetting National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ) leader, Zahran Hashim.

The suspect was apprehended on the information obtained after the questioning of an electro-cardiologist of the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital.

The electro-cardiologist has been taken into custody along with two others on the suspicion of maintaining links with the NTJ.

The Hansard Department officer had been identified as Mohamed Naushad Jalaldeen (42), a father of two and a resident of Alawatugoda in Kandy. (Pushpakumara Jayaratna)

Video by Damith