An armed group abducted my younger brother this month. He was 25 years old. They came in a van in early February at around 8.30 in the night.

I am the eldest son in my family and I returned to Mannar after my marriage. After one year I told my parents to come down to Sri Lanka since a ceasefire agreement was signed between LTTE and the government. They returned to Mannar after 12 years from India.

As soon as he was abducted I informed the ICRC, FCE, Citizen Committees and CHA. My abducted brother is the youngest in our family. He neither knows nor has any connection with any militant group.

Yet he was abducted.

We searched all over but we could not find him. In early March I suddenly got an anonymous call. The person one who spoke to me over the phone did not tell me his name or address. He just said, “Your brother is in the Colombo National Hospital”.

The following day we went to the hospital where we found my brother, lying on a bed. He was senseless and restless. We could see that he had gone through a lot of pain.

The doctors advised us to not ask him anything until he fully recovers.

That may be a long wait.