Batticaloa Teachers protest demanding release of arrested collegues

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 May 2008, 13:23 GMT]
Three hundred teacher trainees of Batticaloa Teacher training college boycotted the classes and staged a peaceful rally Tuesday morning demanding the release of five teacher trainees arrested by Waduwa police in Kalutura district on 27 April.

The protestors demanding the release of the trainees detained by police for more than ten days carried placards with the slogans "Do not prevent Tamil teachers from visiting Colombo “Do not harass the teachers," "Release the arrested trainees," and marched up to the Batticaloa secretariat.

The five teacher trainees from Batticaloa district had gone to Colombo to attend certain personal matters when they were taken into custody by Waduwa police.

The trainees arrested by the police have been identified as Thillainathan Premananthan, 30, Sugumar Rajkumar, 34, Ponniah Kamalraj, 26, Sivalingam Wigneswaran, 28 and Sithamparapillai Wilvarajah, 29.