People in the poor, mainly Tamil neighbourhood in Colombo described it as a harrowing day.
It was 5 am on a Wednesday when police started knocking on doors. They searched hundreds of homes, then forced thousands of men, women and children to get dressed and walk through the narrow streets lined with soldiers to a nearby sports field. Over the next six hours, authorities questioned, photographed and videotaped the neighbourhood's inhabitants.
Still, few of those rounded up expressed surprise at the intrusion.
Members of Sri Lanka's minority Tamil community say police raids, harassment, arbitrary detentions and even abductions have become routine in recent years as violence has escalated in the 25-year civil war between the government, dominated by the Sinhalese majority, and the Tamil Tiger militia fighting for a separate state in the island's north and east.
"They think every Tamil-speaking person is a terrorist. They want to control us," said Sanjeevi Ramiah, 47, one of the few residents of the Kimbulla Ela neighbourhood willing to speak publicly about the July 2 raid.
While Tamils and human rights advocates complain about police excesses, most agree this Indian Ocean island nation is faced with a serious threat from the rebels.
The Tigers have been blamed for deadly attacks over the past year that have spread fear across the capital, Colombo, in the south. A June bombing on a crowded suburban bus killed 21 people, two days after a blast targeting the railroad in the city narrowly missed a passenger train.
"No one suggests for the moment that there should not be security measures and precautions," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank. "At the same time, we need to be a lot more serious in finding the balance between democratic rights and human rights and the right security measures. We can't alienate an entire community, an entire section of the citizenry."
Emergency regulations renewed by parliament each month give the government wide-ranging powers to arrest terror suspects and detain them indefinitely.
With each new attack in the capital, the complex web of checkpoints, road closures and random searches tightens. And many Tamils say their lives grow harder.
They say police assume they sympathize with the rebels' fight for a homeland for ethnic Tamils and single them out at checkpoints and during searches on buses.