2ND LEAD (Update)

SL Police detains Tamil student leaders of Jaffna University after SLA cordon

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 May 2019, 12:13 GMT]
The occupying SL Army has detained the main Tamil student leaders of Jaffna University after deploying a large-scale cordon and search operation along with the SL Police under the pretext of securing the premises from Islamist attackers on Friday. The SLA, using the Emergency Regulations, wants to stop the student mobilisation towards the 10th year remembrance of Tamil genocide on 18 May, fellow student leaders told TamilNet. Jaffna University Student Union President 25-year-old T. Thivakar, who hails from Mullaiththeevu and JUSU Secretary 24-year-old S. Babilraj are the two leaders detained. It is the first time that the SLA has been deployed in a big cordon and search operation inside the University of Jaffna, JUSU members said.



The SL soldiers who were searching the office of the JUSU seized a binocular and a military-style shoe, both used in the dramas staged by the students in the past. The SLA then started to claim that these were ‘terrorist’ related items.

The SL military was also claiming that the portrait of Tamil Eelam National Leader V Pirapaharan, which has been there for years since the Norwegian-facilitated peace process, as inciting terrorism, administrative officials at the University said.

The SLA is trying to paint a terrorist image to the Tamils citing LTTE as an internationally banned organisation, the officials said.



The SLA was also making trouble at the Medical Faculty by detaining the private operator of the cafeteria, Mr Ponnambalam Gnanavel.

The SL military intelligence personnel started to claim that the photo of former University Student who sacrificed his life in a fast-unto-death campaign as the LTTE's Political Head Lt. Col. Thileepan was hanging in the premises of the cafeteria.

The student union of the Art Faculty convened a press conference at Jaffna Press Club clarifying the situation to the press.

The student leaders said the SLA and the Police were engaged in a shadow war against the Tamil student community for a long time and is using the current situation to clamp down on them.



Furthermore, the SL military intelligence was also trying to project the sample models of mines used for education purpose at the Department of Community and Family Medicine. The samples include claymore mine skeletons as well as other mines. The department was using them to educate the students on the effects of mines, and it had secured permission from the SL Defence Ministry to do so. Even after the academics documented it, the SL soldiers were focused on taking photos and exhibiting these as 'discoveries' of a search operation against 'terrorism'.

The SL military intelligence is using the opportunity to wage propaganda, the students said.

In the meantime, the SL Education Ministry has also instructed the principals of the schools to provide full access to the SL military and police in preparations to ensure security on 06 May when the schools are scheduled to start.

The SLA stationed in the North has been demanding direct interaction with the students for a long time. During the times of Rajapaksa regime, the schools in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils were instructed to invite the SL military commanders for all the functions, and any public meeting at the schools was to be held only after informing the nearby SLA camp.

After 2015 and especially after the Northern Provincial Council, which was led by Justice C.V. Wigneswaran intervened, the school administrations were told it was not necessary to inform and involve the SL military in the civil administration of the schools.

The latest terror attacks carried out by the Islamic militants have paved the way for the SL military to militarise the schools in the North once again, the officials complained.

The SL Defence Ministry has instructed the SLA to trace 20 vehicles in the North-East stating that it believed the vehicles could be used to carry out bomb attacks against the schools and places of worship.

All vehicles are subjected to strict control at five places on the A9 highway between Vavuniyaa and Jaffna.

The SLA was searching the main university premises, medical faculty and the hostel.

The students questioned why the SLA was deployed to carry out the cordon and search operations instead of the SL Police.



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