Student Union demands release of Tamil students, Amila Thera

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 January 2010, 12:53 GMT]
Hundreds of students of the Inter-University Students Union (IUSU) held a protest Thursday afternoon demanding the government to release Tamil university students arrested as LTTE suspects and Venerable Amila Thera. The demonstration which commenced from the premises of the Colombo University was stopped by police at Ernest De Silva Mawatha to prevent the students from proceeding towards Temple Trees, Colombo media reported.

IUSU is a front organization of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

Traffic in and around Town Hall came to a complete standstill as thousands of university students took to the streets demanding the immediate release of Tamil students held in custody and a pro-JVP Buddhist monk as a heavily armed policemen stood guard.

Tamil students being held without charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER), the IUSU spokesperson said.

Venerable Dambara Amila Thera who was arrested a week ago in an alleged fraud.