The Jaffna Magistrate Court issued a ban earlier today commemorating the 34th anniversary of Lt. Col. Thileepan’s hunger strike unto death.
The ban came after the Jaffna police filed an injunction with the court requesting for this ban to take place on 26th September in the Jaffna Thileepan memorial. Police had claimed that they received information about members belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) operating within Sri Lanka and from abroad are planning to organise a commemoration. The police further alleged that commemorations would violate COVID-19 regulations. The court granted the police's injunction.
Despite this crackdown, Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) parliamentarians paid tribute to Lt Col Thileepan and chose to remember the sacrifice he undertook in protest against the failure of the Indian government to honour the pledges made to the Tamil people. Sri Lanka's police responded by arresting Selvarasa Kajendren General Secretary of the TNPF.
Kajendren has since been released on bail.
Read more here: TNPF MP released on bail following arrest by Sri Lankan police over Thileepan commemoration
The police are now deployed in the memorial in order to ensure that no form of remembrance events go ahead. They were reportedly ordered to arrest anyone who attempts to conduct commemoration.
