They had been picked from among 45,000 people staying at a refugee camp at eastern university on 05 September 1990 and loaded into buses, say the university staff members who had managed the camp.

At a remembrance event at Pillayar Kovil at Vandaramoolai, relatives said nothing had been heard about them since.

These people had sought shelter following the collapse of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the LTTE.

Human rights groups say around 1,000 persons arrested individually or as groups during the period are still unaccounted for.

Eyewitness Vellaisamy Govindaraj said masked men accompanying the military had picked the 158 persons, including his brother.

The then defence secretary A.W. Fernando said 34 taken by the military from the camp were released within 24 hours.

However, Dr. P. Jayasingham, a university staffer, denies it, adding the 1995 presidential commission headed by retired high court judge K. Balakrishnan had done nothing other than recording their statements, BBC Sandeshaya reports.