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Note on Iniya Bharathi’s office in Thambiluvil in Ampara District,<br />
Eastern Sri Lanka<br />
K Pushpakumar, known as Iniya Bharathi, is a Tamil paramilitary leader who<br />
was initially part of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Poolikal (TMVP) or Karuna<br />
Group, after Karuna split from the LTTE in April 2004. Later Iniya Bharathi<br />
joined Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA and become the President's Coordinator for<br />
Ampara District. Iniya Bharathi’s office in Thambiluvil in Ampara District had<br />
torture cells in the basement where CID took people and tortured them, and in<br />
some cases killed them. Iniya Bharathi also had camps in Kaluwanchikudy on<br />
the Ampara/Batticaloa border and in Ampara Town. His paramilitary forces<br />
were protected by the Special Task Force (STF) and he worked closely with the<br />
CID, which was involved in accepting ransom for the release of detainees.<br />
Iniya Bharathi is said by witnesses to have commanded a force of 200 men.<br />
With impunity from apprehension and prosecution, his group was involved in<br />
extortion, torture and murder, as well as the abduction of hundreds of ex-LTTE<br />
members, businessmen and contractors from 2005-7; these were mostly Tamils<br />
but included some Muslim businessmen as well. His involvement in<br />
disappearances is well known locally; mothers of the missing held a protest in<br />
Ampara in February 2015 asking for Iniya Bharathi to be held to account.<br />
The ITJP is in possession of evidence, including that of an insider security force<br />
witness, that the former President’s brother and adviser, Basil Rajapaksa,<br />
controlled the Iniya Bharathi group, arranging for them to be given unmarked<br />
weapons and organising to pay them from the Treasury through the STF. Iniya<br />
Bharathi’s paramilitary group was expected by the Sri Lankan government to<br />
fund the remaining costs of running a force of 200 armed men through<br />
extortion. The insider, who was in a position to know, states that Basil<br />
Rajapaksa also knew about and ordered the use of torture and execution by<br />
Iniya Bharathi’s men and gave them protection from the police. The witness,<br />
being in a position to know, states that then president Mahinda Rajapaksa<br />
authorised the funding to Iniya Bharathi's group in this manner. The insider<br />
witness also provided corroborating photographs of meetings between<br />
Mahinda Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa and Iniya Bharathi. We have the names<br />
of several members of Iniya Bharathi’s group allegedly involved in murder and<br />
extortion, according to eyewitnesses.<br />
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