The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has called for the arrest of State Minister Lohan Ratwatte over the alleged incident of him threatening to kill Tamil prisoners in the Anuradhapura prison on Sunday (12). “We call on the Government to immediately remove the State Minister for Prison Management and have him arrested and charged after an immediate inquiry for allegedly threatening to kill prisoners in the Anuradhapura prison on Sunday 12th September,” the Party expressed via a tweet last night (14). Meanwhile, Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) MP Gajen Ponnambalam stated that the Party condemns in the strongest possible terms this “dastardly behaviour” of the State Minister. Also taking to twitter to shed light on the alleged incident, Ponnambalam claimed that his party could confirm that Ratwatte had indeed entered the Anuradhapura Prison, summoned the Tamil political prisoners, and made two of them kneel before him at gunpoint, threatening to kill them on the spot. “Tamil political prisoners are already traumatised for being held in detention under one of the most draconian pieces of legislation known to the world, the PTA. To have the Minister who is supposed to look after their affairs threaten to kill them can’t possibly make their trauma any worse! The TNPF calls for the immediate resignation of the minister and for him to be stripped of all portfolios,” Ponnambalam added. He also stated that if a Minister can behave in this manner when the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) gaze is on Sri Lanka, it only shows how unperturbed the State is with regards to the UNHRC. “If Sri Lanka is not taken beyond the UNHRC to the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a matter of urgency, the plight of Tamil victims stand to deteriorate far more,” he concluded.