The protest warning has come after a shutdown was observed in the region over the same issue on Thursday. Sampanthan also wrote to Sirisena on Thursday urging for their release.
However, Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene has contended that the prisoners under the question are not political prisoners.
“They are those who have been charged for serious crimes during the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) time. Their cases have to be dealt with by the court,” Wijewardene said.
Both Tamil and international rights groups have been demanding for the repeal of the PTA, which gives enormous power to security forces to detain people indefinitely.
The government says they are in the process of reforming counter-terrorism laws with a modern terrorism act, which will maintain international standards.
Sri Lanka faced UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolutions for alleged human rights abuses during the last phase of the brutal three-decade-long civil war against the LTTE that ended in 2009.
The UNHRC has demanded accountability mechanisms to probe rights abuses blamed on both the LTTE and the government.
Sri Lanka is averse to setting up of an international hybrid court with local and foreign judges to investigate the alleged war crimes committed by the government troops and the LTTE in the last phase of the conflict.
According to the government figures, around 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts including the civil war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east which claimed at least 100,000 lives.
