Students boycott schools in Batticaloa against abduction of girl student

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2009, 14:07 GMT]
Students of nearly 25 schools in and around Batticaloa town continued their boycott of schools for the ninth day Thursday in protest against the abduction of Satheskumar Thinusika, a grade 3 girl student of Batticaloa Koaddaimunai Junior School by a paramilitary group operating with Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Batticaloa said. Meanwhile, parents alleged that the police have shot and killed three suspects in order to save the main perpetrators who hold high positions in the government, the sources added.

The parents further said that there are two more suspects who have not been arrested and that the boycott will continue until they are taken into custody and produced in the court.

Thinusika had been abducted on 28 April and the students began their boycott on 29 April bringing around 25 schools to a stand still.

The parents do not send their children to schools for fear of abduction and the education of the students has been very much affected, principals of the schools said.

The situation is so lawless that the parents are unable to seek protection or legal action against the abductions and killings, they further said.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians had accused that the suspects in Thinusika’s abduction have been shot and killed by the police in an attempt to save the real perpetrators who hold key posts in the government Tuesday speaking on the motion to extend the state of emergency for another month, in the Parliament.

Meanwhile, police officials in Batticaloa said they located Tuesday morning three bullet-riddled dead bodies of men who were alleged suspects of involvement in the abduction and murder of 8-year-old Thinusika Satheeskumar.

In March, Regi Jude Varsha, a 6-year-old girl student of St. Mary’s Girls’ School in Trincomalee. was abducted and later killed by armed men who demanded ransom from her parents.

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