Sri Lankan police have arrested a former senior police official, wanted in connection with human rights abuses during the previous United National Party (UNP) regime, when he returned from India on Thursday after over a five-year exile abroad. Former SSP Douglas Peiris, charged with torture and murder of scores of Sinhalese youth during height of the insurgency of ultra left-wing Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna in 1988-90 was arrested at the international airport in Colombo after his return from Chennai, newspaper daily news reported on Saturday. His arrest, amidst heightened political tension between the UNP and the government over the constitution bill, assumes significance as Peiris is a key suspect in the case against UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, who has been accused of giving orders for the torture.
A special judicial commission comprising retired Supreme Court judges named Peiris and other officials guilty of the massacres and listed accusations by several witnesses concerning Wickramasinghe's involvement in the killings.

Report: Zeenext Bureau