Police block Tamil protest in Jaffna

by admin
Jun 17, 2012

Photograph: TamilNet

A large scale protest by Tamil activists in Jaffna against the expropriation of private land by the government, held in front of Jaffna Bus Stand, was blocked by Sri Lankan police on Monday, reports TamilNet.

See here.

Having alleged the protest contained "destructive elements", the Sri Lankan police cited 'legal permission' from a District Court judge to block the protest at the final moment.

Initiated by the Tamil National Peoples Front (TPNF), the protests saw activists from a wide variety of political and civil society organisations attending including students from the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU), trade union organisations and other political organisations such as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Democratic Peoples Front (DPF).

According to TamilNet, Selvaraja Kajendran of the TNPF said, 

 'the ‘legal move’ by the SL Police to curb the protestors against the land grab, only indicated that the forces behind land grab in the peninsula have been severely disturbed by the emerging trend to stage protest against the illegal appropriations of land'

The key participants addressed the gathered protesters at the TNPF office located on 3rd Cross Street.

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