A Sri Lankan gang responsible for a spate of violent incidents in the northern Jaffna peninsula has been arrested, military said Thursday.
The arrest of a person on Wednesday led to the arrest of eight more people, said Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, the chief of the Jaffna troops.
He said an organized gang has been involved in acts of violence, abductions and house break-ins in order to embarrass the security forces stationed in Jaffna, a former stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The rights and opposition groups have been highlighting the rising wave of crime in Jaffna. The main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament last week that some eight people were killed within a space of ten days.
The government accused the remnants of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels of being behind the acts of terror.
The military said they have intensified the security patrols so that criminal gangs would be kept under check.