Sri Lankan police officers obstructed Tamils in Pillaiyaradi, Batticaloa, from distributing kanji to mark the sixth day of Tamil Genocide Remembrance Week.
This is the second time this week that Tamils in Batticaloa have been blocked by Sri Lankan police from distributing kanji as part of their commemorations.
On Wednesday, Sri Lankan police officers surrounded the Tamil activists as they attempted to prepare and distribute Mullivaikkal Kanji, a tradition that Eelam Tamils have practised to remember the victims of the genocide committed by Sri Lankan security forces.
Every year, in the lead up to and on May 18, Tamils in the North-East are subject to harassment and surveillance by Sri Lanka's security forces in an attempt to intimidate them. Despite the surveillance, Tamils have been defiant in commemorating those who were massacred in Mullivaikkal.
