orowpothana Police yesterday arrested five including a management assistant who had allegedly maintained close contacts with suicide bomber Zahran Hashim. Preliminary police nvestigations have also found that the management assistant in question was attached to the Horowpothana Divisional Secretariat and he had conducted lectures to Muslim youth in two districts.

A front page newspaper report in a national daily on Thursday (23) had claimed that a doctor connected to the Thowheed Jamaath had sterilized 4000 Sinhala Buddhist women during caesarean operations and that information has been received with evidence and investigations have commenced to arrest the doctor. The newspaper also claims that this doctor had carried out over 7000 surgeries. Commenting on this issue the Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara categorically denied any such investigations being carried out by the CID or any other special Police teams. He also said that Police have not received any such complaints. He made these remarks at a press briefing held at the Media Centre in Kollupitiya, last evening (23).