COLOMBO, April 16 (Xinhua) — Sri Lanka’s main opposition on Monday said it was demanding for a debate on increasing number of disappearances and abductions in the country.

The Chief Opposition Whip, United National Party MP John Amaratunga said the party hopes to table this adjournment motion at the parliamentary session starting on May 8.

“We want to bring this serious problem before the parliament as the incidents of abductions and disappearance have gone up rapidly over the recent past,” Amaratunga said.

He said the request for the inclusion of the motion in parliamentary agenda is to be submitted to the parliamentary secretary this week.

“The government should be answerable to increasing number of disappearances,” Amaratunga said.

The opposition’s demand to take up the issue before parliament was triggered by the disappearance of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist party Frontline Socialist Party leader Premakumar Gunaratnam.

Gunaratnam, a former member of the Marxist People’s Liberation Front, the leading opposition political party in Sri Lanka, went missing earlier this month before he was found a couple of days later.

Gunaratnam and a few others split from the People’s Liberation Front, also known as the JVP, following a rift with the party leadership, and launched the Frontline Socialist Party this month.