COLOMBO, June 2: In a bid to minimise terrorist threats to Colombo and its environs, the police have instructed lodges in the capital to immediately expel all Tamil tenants hailing from the north eastern districts. Over 5,000 north eastern Tamils are believed to be occupying nearly 70 lodges in the busy Pettah region in Colombo.

The instruction by the city police hierarchy came on Thursday when lodge owners were summoned by the police on short notice, sources said while Tamil parliamentarians on Saturday stated they have protested to the Mahinda Rajapakse government regarding the move.

The new regulation to oust non-Colombo Tamils comes days after a deadly bomb explosion in the city last week, targeting government troops, left eight civilians dead and nearly 40 injured.

Inspector General of Police Victor Perera, addressing a media briefing in Colombo defended the expulsion of suspicious north eastern Tamils, declaring that the rights of terrorists could not be upheld and maintained that only Tamils who could not prove their identity or purpose of staying in Colombo were asked to return to the north east.

“Some of them taken in for questioning told police they were here to obtain their passports or visas to travel overseas.

However, subsequent inquiries revealed that they had already obtained their passports and the visas months ago and continued to stay in lodges for purposes which they did not reveal,” the IGP said.

In search operations carried out over the past two days, the police had taken in around 100 youths, both male and female, who could not provide valid identity papers, police sources said.

Meanwhile, the senior police officials said that Tamil suspects who could not provide a valid reason for their stay in Colombo would be sent back to their native places at state expense.