Sri Lankan Army captain held over alleged sexual harassment of female passenger in Jaffna

A Sri Lankan army captain has been arrested over the alleged sexual harassment of a young woman on a bus in Jaffna, the latest such case to draw attention to the conduct of the security forces in the heavily militarised North-East.

The incident is alleged to have taken place on a bus travelling from Jaffna town towards Palaly along Palaly Road, where, according to reports, the suspect sexually harassed a female passenger during the journey. The woman alerted Jaffna Police by telephone, and officers intercepted the bus in the Ariyakulam area and arrested the suspect.

Preliminary police investigations identified him as a captain attached to the armys 9th Infantry Division and serving at the occupying Palaly Army Camp. He remains in the custody of Jaffna Police as investigations continue.

Palaly is among the largest military installations in the North, at the heart of the Valikamam North High Security Zone, where the army continues to occupy thousands of acres of Tamil land more than seventeen years after the Mullivaikkal genocide of 2009. Across the North-East, the security forces remain a pervasive presence in the daily life of the Tamil people, an occupation that Tamil civil society has repeatedly identified as a factor in the vulnerability of Tamil women.

The arrest follows a series of similar incidents. Last year, a soldier was arrested for sexually harassing a schoolgirl travelling on a state-run bus in Mannar, one of several cases that have renewed concern over the conduct of soldiers in close proximity to schools, public transport and other civilian spaces.

Sexual violence and harassment by the Sri Lankan security forces against Tamil women has been documented over decades, by human rights organisations and Tamil groups alike, and has been marked throughout by near-total impunity.