Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s visit to Puthukudiyiruppu in Mullaitivu yesterday for local election campaigning saw an intense security clampdown across the district, with heavy deployment of armed forces and police.
Security presence was notably heightened in key areas including Mullaitivu town, Mullivaikkal, and Puthukudiyiruppu. Members of the public attending the meeting were subjected to thorough body searches before being permitted entry into the venue.
Speaking at the campaign event, Dissanayake announced that steps would be taken to promptly release all lands in the Northern and Eastern provinces that had been acquired by the Sri Lankan government under the guise of “security reasons”, in order to allow local residents to resume their agricultural activities.
The continued military occupation and state appropriation of Tamil lands has remained a major source of grievance across the Tamil homeland. Despite the end of the armed conflict in 2009, thousands of acres remain under military control, preventing the return of displaced civilians.
Addressing the Tamil-speaking audience, Dissanayake emphasised that although he had engaged extensively with the Sinhala community and conducted numerous meetings among them, he would "in no way betray the trust placed in him" by Tamil people. He assured that future initiatives would be focused on strengthening that trust and expressed hope that the National People’s Power (NPP) government’s actions would win over even those who had not yet supported them with their votes.
In addition, the Sri Lankan president pledged that during the NPP’s first term, an international cricket stadium would be established in Jaffna, with international cricket matches to be hosted there.
