Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) Batticaloa District parliamentarian Shanakiyan Rasamanickam has submitted a private member's motion urging the Sri Lankan government to take immediate steps to fully repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
The motion has been listed on the parliamentary agenda but has not yet been taken up for debate. A separate private member's bill on the matter has also been submitted, though it has not yet been published in the government gazette.
In the motion, Rasamanickam notes that the PTA, introduced in 1979 as a temporary measure, was later made permanent and has over the decades enabled serious human rights violations, arbitrary arrests and prolonged detentions. Many individuals have been held in custody for extended periods without formal charges or judicial proceedings, the motion states, and fundamental freedoms including freedom of expression, media freedom and the right to peaceful protest have been significantly undermined.
Tamils and Muslims, social activists, students, journalists and human rights defenders have been disproportionately affected by the application of the law, the motion notes, as repeatedly highlighted by human rights organisations. United Nations human rights mechanisms, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and numerous international and local civil society organisations have long called for the complete repeal of the legislation.
Rasamanickam emphasises that amendments alone are insufficient and that a new legal framework must be established in line with human rights standards, the rule of law and democratic principles. He stresses that the government has a responsibility to fulfil its election pledge to abolish the PTA, and that rather than renaming or repackaging the law, it should be fully repealed and replaced with legal safeguards protecting fundamental rights.
He calls on the government to demonstrate political commitment to abolishing the Act in order to strengthen reconciliation, justice, accountability and democratic governance, and urges parliament to hold a comprehensive debate on the proposal, appealing to all political parties to set aside partisan differences in support of measures protecting the fundamental rights of the people.
In February, Rasamanickam tabled a private member's bill seeking the swift repeal of the PTA, telling parliament that the country "wants this act gone" and warning that the government's proposed replacement law was "worse than what it attempts to repeal". He has repeatedly reminded lawmakers that the JVP-National People's Power (NPP) government came to office having pledged, both before and during the 2024 election campaign, to abolish the PTA and replace it with legislation compliant with international human rights standards. Nearly two years on, the law remains in force.
The renewed push comes as the PTA's continued use against Tamils has drawn fresh condemnation. Rasamanickam has condemned the arrest of Tamil rapper Sangeethsan Ganeskumar, known as Hiphop Sangee, who was detained under the PTA on 2 June over videos uploaded after a temple festival performance in Chavakachcheri, Jaffna.
"If they are scared of a song, this is very ridiculous," he said, describing the detention of a youth for singing as an indictment of the law itself. Sangeethsan has been remanded until 17 June, with a fundamental rights petition to be filed before Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on his behalf.
Sangeethsan's case is not an isolated one. Successive ITAK members have pointed to a pattern of Tamil youth detained under the PTA for social media posts, songs and commemorative events, even as the government continues to renew a state of emergency and resists calls from Amnesty International and others to repeal the law without delay.
