Eastern University students boycott lectures

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2008, 04:53 GMT]
Students of Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) in Vanthaa'rumoolai are boycotting lectures since Monday, wearing black bands to express their condolence to the killing of their fellow Sinhalese student, S. P. Samarasinghe, on 21 August 2008, and the detaining of Sasikaran, a third year Agricultural Faculty Tamil student, arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killing of the Sinhalese student.The boycott of lectures and protest demonstrations will continue until Sasikaran is released, the vice president of EUSL student union said.

S. P. Samarasinghe, a final-year student from Kurunegala, studying at EUSL at Vanthaa'rumoolai, was shot and killed in the university hostel by unknown armed men on August 21 around 9:15 p.m.

EUSL Vice Chancellor (VC), K. Pathmanathan had earlier said that Ea'raavoor police told him that Sasikaran will be released in two days after interrogation.

Sasikaran was not released even after two months but was handed over to Criminal Investigation Police who had come from Colombo, for further investigations.

The family members and relatives of Sasikaran blame the VC and the EUSL administration for not having made any efforts towards obtaining the release of Sasikaran.

All the Sinhalese students in EUSL were transferred to other non-Northeast universities of Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka University Grants Commission recently took steps to relocate all activities of EUSL to a Sinhalese area but gave up due to protests by the Tamil students and their parents.

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