TAMIL NADU state police on the Indian mainland have swooped on Tamil nationalist leaders reports TamilNet.
Tamil Nadu police arrested Pazha Nedumaaran, the leader of the Tamil Nationalist Movement (TNM), Vaiko, the leader of Marumalardchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (MDMK) and several other leaders of parties supporting the Eelam Tamils, including Indian National League.
The arrests took place on Monday in Chennai when these leaders led a demonstration march condemning the Sri Lanka Government (GoSL) for assassinating Brigadier S. P. Tamilchelvan, the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in an aerial bombing on November 2nd.
They were arrested for defying a ban on the rally imposed by the provincial Indian government of Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu politicians Vaiko, Nedumaran, Basheer Ahmed, Aanaimuththu, Maniarasan and several others were among the hundreds of activists arrested by the Tamil Nadu Police.
Hundreds of members and supporters of the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC), TNM and MDMK began the protest demonstration march from the Monroe statue in Chennai wearing badges of their respective organisations and bearing placards of Tamilchelvan’s photo.
Vaiko and Pazha Nedumaran arrived in a vehicle holding Tamilchelvan’s photo placards where the demonstrators were when the police obstructed their vehicle from proceeding further.
The two leaders began the meeting condemning the government of Sri Lanka for killing Tamilchelvan by delivering speeches from the vehicle itself.
‘The Sri Lankan state is engaged in killing hundreds and thousands of Eelam Tamils and we are greatly concerned about the Indian assistance given to Sri Lanka in the form of radars and military equipment,’ Vaiko said in his speech.
Pazha Nedumaran too condemned Sri Lanka in the same vein and both leaders appealed to the Indian Central Government to immediately stop all military assistance to Sri Lanka.
Tamil Nadu police, deployed in large numbers, arrested Vaiko and Pazha Nedumaran following their speeches.
The police baton charged the protesting demonstrators when the two arrested leaders were taken away.
Meanwhile, among the latest development in Sri Lanka was that two youths have been reported missing in Jaffna.
Family members of a student residing at Amman Koayiladi in Kantharmadam in Jaffna town have registered a complaint to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office about a student missing since Friday.
Also a day labourer from Vara’ni in Thenmaraadchi has been missing since Saturday, according to a separate complaint made to the HRC .
Both complaints were registered Monday.
The student missing since Friday is Kankasbapathy Sanjeevan, 21, originally from Vangkalaavadi in Veala’nai presently staying in Kantharmadam.
Sanjeevan, who had appeared for the GCE O-level exam, had been staying at home.
He was not seen after going to his relative’s house Friday in Eazhaalai area to spend Theepaava’li.
The labourer reported missing is Kulasingam Sivakumar, 24, of Idaikkurichchi, Va’ra’ni in Thenmaraadchi.
Sivakumar was last seen on Saturday when he left home.
As well, two civilians have been shot dead in Jaffna.
Unidentified armed men on a motor cycle followed a fisherman Monday around 6:00 a.m and shot him dead at Mulavaichchanthi in Raasaavinthoddam area, sources in Jaffna said.
Meanwhile, a civilian was shot dead Monday afternoon in Nalloor-Kachcheari road area, according to Jaffna police.
The fisherman shot dead was identified as Francis Thileep, 39, a father of five children and a resident of Kurunakar Flats in Jaffna.
Thileep had come to Raasaavinthodam road to attend to matters related to his occupation where the killers shot him dead and escaped from the site.
Details of the civilian shot killed in Nalloor-Kachcheari road area is not available.
Earlier, Sunday morning around 9:00 a.m, unidentified armed men on a motorbike shot dead Thiruchelvam Jeyakumar in Kalviyangkaadu, Nalloor while he was travelling along Chaddanaathar Road.
All three killings have taken place within Jaffna Municipal Council area which is very heavily guarded and patrolled by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Monday fixed an inquiry for March 10 next year into the fundamental rights violation petition filed by a group of farmers seeking the court to make an order allowing them to cultivate their traditional paddy lands now being occupied by the Sri Lanka Army in the name of a high security zone in Jaffna district since 1990.
The FR petition filed by Maavai Senathirajah and some other farmers who own paddy lands in the Palaali area now being declared as a high security zone was taken up for further inquiry before a three-member bench of the Supreme Court Monday.
The bench comprised Chief Justice Sarath N.Silva (Chairman), Justices Ms Shiranee Tilakawardene and Jagath Balapattebendi.
One of the petitioners, Maavai Senathirajah, is a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian representing the Jaffna district
The petitioners submitted to court that their livelihood had been badly affected due to their traditional farming lands located in Palaali being occupied by the Sri Lanka Army in the name of high security zone.
Hence they begged court to order the authorities to allow them to cultivate their paddy fields, legal sources said.
Counsel for the petitioners told court that, as instructed by the court earlier, the Jaffna Government Agent had perused title deeds of 927 farmers and certified them as genuine.
But there was delay in allowing them to cultivate their lands.
The prosecution representing the Attorney General submitted to court that action has already been taken to release paddy lands to genuine owners.
The court then put off the inquiry into the petition for March 10 next year.
