Suspected Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives on Monday have threatened to kill the Jaffna University Teachers’ Association President and four students, accusing them of “reviving the Tamil Tiger rebels”.
According to university sources, several hand-written posters in Tamil slang were found pasted in and around the university area. “Will kill Nivas, Thamilselvan, Aynkaran and Britto and Rasakumar” one poster read, while the other said “These people are reviving the LTTE”, “We will kill them” and “We will not allow Heroes’ Week commemorations”.
Commenting on the latest threats against the university community, a Jaffna University lecturer said such threats “should be considered very seriously because they have come few days before the LTTE’s Heroes’ Day commemoration”.
“The army and its intelligence operatives have already increased their presence in the vicinity of the university and they are visibly behaving in a threatening manner. These warning cannot be taken lightly. We have been denied the even the basic rights to mourn and commemorate hundreds of thousands of our people killed in the war,” he told Colombo Mirror via phone on condition of anonymity.
Other sources in Jaffna said that the military intelligence unit has opened two “surveillance centres” at Nachchimar kovilady and Kaladdy junctions last week to closely monitor the movements of the University staff and students. These two surveillance centres have been set up at civilian houses, located within 500 meters away from the university.
The LTTE Heroes’ week is annually commemorated on November 27. The Sri Lankan Security Forces in the past threatened, attacked and arrested several students activists for commemorating the LTTE’s Heroes’ Day.
Meanwhile, the police and the military spokesmen in Colombo have said Security Forces in the North and East “would not allow events glorifying the LTTE in the name Heroes Week”.
“The LTTE is a terrorist organisation proscribed in Sri Lanka. In the name of heroes or otherwise we will not allow anyone to glorify terrorism, we will prevent it,” Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya has said.
Police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana has said that the police personnel in the North were kept on alert to deal with any situation that may arise because of the Heroes’ Day commemorations.
“We will not allow any commemoration of terrorism openly and allow these extremist elements to spread ethnic hatred,” he told reporters in Colombo
– Courtesy Colombo Mirror