Sri Lanka is to conduct inquiries over people reported missing in the former war-raved northern Jaffna town, the national human rights body said Thursday.

The Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission, the national human rights body in the country, said that the investigations will focus on those reported missing in 2006 in Jaffna.

Hundreds of minority Tamil civilians were reported missing during the 30 year war between the military and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Following the end of the war three years ago families of those who disappeared had sought assistance from the national human rights commission to locate their family members.

The Human Rights Commission regional coordinator in Jaffna, T. Kanagaraj, told Xinhua that information on those reported missing in Jaffna in 2006 had been gathered over the last two years.

Of the information received some 130 people reported missing had returned home while an unspecified number of others were still missing, Kanagaraj said.

He said that a team from the Human Rights Commission main office in Colombo will visit Jaffna next week to conduct the inquiries.

"They will make inquiries at the relevant police stations in Jaffna where complaints were lodged regarding the missing people. The inquiries will be conducted for a one week period," Kanagaraj said.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) more than 15,000 have been reported missing in Sri Lanka by the end of last year.

Human rights groups had been calling on Sri Lanka to investigate reports of missing people in the north as well as other parts of the country.