The convenor of the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) Wasantha Kumara Mudalige was arrested in the early hours of this morning when he was leaving the premises of the Sirasa TV station.
According to initial reports, at around 3. 30 am today about 300 police and STF personnel had surrounded the TV station and blocked all access roads to it and waited for the student leader who had gone to the TV station to participate in a TV program.
There have been a growing number of arrests of undergraduates and teachers in the past days.
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) told a press briefing earlier today that two undergraduates from the Kelaniya university and Sri Jayewardenepura university had been arrested yesterday.
In another incident yesterday, a group of men dressed in civilian attire had boarded a bus which had been carrying lecturers and students of the Sri Jayawardenepura university who had been returning after a protest against the Kotalawela Defence University Bill. When the students and lecturers had questioned why their bus was stopped the men had replied they were looking for the IUSF convenor.
Protestors who are being arrested in areas such as Dematagoda, Peliyagoda and Wellawatte are being detained in the Harbour police without access to legal representation and their family. Opposition MPs, including the leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, who tried to visit them were prevented from going into the police station.
The JVP said that arresting protestors when they are returning after protests, without a warrant and a reason for the arrest, is illegal.
