SLN allows students entry into Mandaitivu after protest

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 18:49 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) manning the checkpoint at the Pannai junction who had earlier blocked a group of Jaffna University students from entering Mandaitivu Tuesday allowed the group in, after the students held a three-hour sit-in-protest commencing from 9.30 a.m., sources in Jaffna said.

Twenty undergrads Tuesday morning were prevented by the army soldiers at the checkpoint when they were going to Mandaithivu to conduct awareness campaign for the Tamil Resurgence Convention which is to be held in Jaffna on September, sources said.

Soldiers told students that they would be allowed if they produce pass from the authorities concerned to enter Mandaithivu. Undergrads demanded that they should be allowed to go Mandaithivu without any restriction.

Mr.S.Gajendran and Mr.K.Sivanesan, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians rushed to the site and held discussion with army authorities. As soldiers did not respond favorably, students commenced a sit-in-protest in front of the checkpoint. About two hundred students later joined the protest.

Thereafter army officers rushed to the site to diffuse tension in the area. Consequently soldiers allowed the undergrads to proceed to Mandaithivu after 12.30 p.m. without any restriction, undergraduate sources said.