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| 27th Nov Jaffna: P. Darshananth explains their right to association |
Stepping up their terror campaign against the Jaffna students’ society, Sri
Lankan police on Saturday (01) has arrested four Jaffna University Students,
including its union leader P. Darshananth and his colleague, in a midnight
raid.
According to media sources in Jaffna, a four-member team in police uniform
has raided the house of the 24-year old Darshananth in the early hours of
Saturday and taken him and another Medical Faculty student to the Jaffna police
station, claiming to record a statement from them.
The wailing mother of Darshananth has said that the police team has not
given the family any documents relating to his arrest.
In a separate incident, two more Jaffna university students were arrested
when they turned up at the nearby Kopay police station on request, along with
the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Velnamby.
Prof. Velnamby has said that on the request of the Kopay Police, he took
Arts Faculty Union leader K. Janamegan and Science Faculty student S.Solomon to
the police station where they were kept and interrogated.
TID takes over
Former Jaffna district parliamentarian and leader of the Tamil National
People’s Front (TNPF) Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam told the JDS that all four
university students have now been transferred to Colombo and the Terrorism
Investigation Department (TID) had taken over the investigation.
“We have requested the key diplomatic missions in Colombo to immediately
intervene and ensure the safety of these students. The TID taking over the
investigation is a matter of grave concern,” he said.
He said the Tamil political forces have decided to launch a massive protest
rally in the next few days in Jaffna to condemn Colombo’s all-out campaign
against the University students just for commemorating their heroes and lighting
the commemoration lamp despite many threats and intimidation.
Continuous intimidation
The midnight arrest of the Students’ leader and three others have come
barely a couple days after the police and the army unleashed a violent attack on
a peaceful march by the university students, wounding seven of them on November
28.
The university students conducted a protest march condemning the previous
day military raid on the university ladies hostels. Jaffna Newspaper editor and
a Jaffna district Tamil parliamentarian were assaulted by the police in uniform
and the state intelligence personnel in civvies for covering the raid on the
ladies hostels on November 27.
Academic sources of the University of Jaffna said on Saturday that the
students from the university hostels have started leaving their hostels for
safety reasons.
Boycott campaign
“The university students who boycotted their classes in protest of the
attack for the past two days have now decided to continue their boycott campaign
with the arrest of four fellow students. They students have demanded the
University Administration to ensure the safety and integrity of the University,
instead of allowing the military to run the show at their will,” he told the JDS
via phone from Jaffna.
Meanwhile, the US embassy issuing a statement, said “the November 28
beating of a reporter in Jaffna, harassment by Government of Sri Lanka officials
of independent media outlets, and searches without warrants of journalists all
serve to stifle media freedom.”
“We call upon authorities to exercise restraint and respect peaceful
demonstrations,” the embassy further said.