Trincomalee protests against Sri Lanka's arrest of Tamils at Vedukkunaari

by Rukshana
Mar 18, 2024

Representatives of civil society organisations, clergy, and the general public staged a protest in front of the Trincomalee Shiva Temple to demonstrate their anger at the continued detention of the Vedukkunaari devotees by the Sri Lankan state.

The protest in Trincomalee mirrored similar demonstrations across the Tamil homeland, including in Batticaloa, Vavuniya and Jaffna.

The protest comes after Sri Lanka police unleashed violence at the Vedukkunaari temple earlier this month, deploying riot police and forcibly taking away devotees who were engaged in worship. Member of Parliament Selvarajah Kajendren was assaulted by Sri Lankan police, and a further 8 worshippers were arrested during the incident. 

The eight individuals who were arrested are: Kanthasamy Gowrikanthan (24), Thilakanathan Kinthuyan (28), Sivam Luxshan (28), Thurairasa Thamichelvan (28), Makenthiran Narenthiran (29), Rasaratnam Vinayagamoorthy (30), Subramaniyam Thavapalasingam (35), Thampirasa Mathimugarasa (45). 

Since their arrest, five of the eight individuals launched a hunger strike in protest of their unlawful detainment and to demand that they are released. The families of those hunger striking reported that their health has deteriorated and urged the authorities to release them so they can be reunited with their loved ones. 

Although Vedukkunaari Hill Athi Sivan temple has been a place of worship for Tamil people for generations, it has been declared as an ancient Buddhist site by Sri Lanka's archaeology department. This forms part of Sri Lanka's ongoing efforts to colonise traditionally Tamil sites.

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button