Sri Lankan soldiers engaged in a sudden round-up of a town in Jaffna last Thursday night (August 20), according to Tamil press reports. 

A large number of troops reportedly appeared in the west of Kondavil, patrolling and carrying out checks on every street in the area.

Locals report that the reason for the sudden round-up was unknown, with no official announcement or statement yet issued by the Sri Lankan military either.

The Sri Lankan army has resumed search operations in Jaffna and have been heavily probing families to prove whether they are housing former LTTE combatants in their homes in the past few weeks. The Keerimalai area was under military examination and round-ups were done, with police officers going door-to-door with the soldiers in the morning in a sudden, unexpected manner last week. 

The army went to the houses in the area and took everyone out of the house and checked their identity cards. A soldier and a police officer took one of the family members into the house and conducted a search throughout the house and asked whether there were any ex-combatants at home. Their names and details were demanded and recorded.

On August 15, the army also went to the houses of ex-combatants in the areas of Kokkuvil and Kondavil and asked them to prove that they were living there. Locals reported that such activities have been taking place for the past three to four weeks.