They say the military's actions are creating fear among the local people.

People feared

However the local commander said there was no substance to their allegations.

The parliamentarians from the largest Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, told the BBC they were outnumbered by attackers wearing military uniform and armed with Kalashnikovs and clubs, as they held a political planning meeting in a village outside the city of Jaffna.

One, Mavai Senadiraja, said about 25 soldiers had rushed into the venue, telling them their gathering was not permitted, and had then started attacking them.

Mr Senadiraja said they didn't actually use their weapons, and no one was injured.

And he said that later they received an apology from a military officer after reporting the incident to the police.

Political meeting

But he believed the episode had been "planned" and he said local people would now be afraid to come to political meetings.

Other eyewitnesses said some people were beaten with batons.

The local army commander, Maj-Gen Mahinda Hathurusinghe, told the BBC they were trying to find out what had happened.

But he denied any attack had been planned and said the MPs were inflating what he called a small incident.

Tension

There have been several recent accounts of tensions between local people in northern Sri Lanka and the Sinhalese-dominated army, whose personnel come mainly from the south.

Last month a meeting of Tamil academics, discussing cultural issues, was reportedly disrupted by armed military personnel who accused them of trying to commemorate the Tamil Tigers - something the academics denied.