The delegation was headed by IUSF, Convener, Sanjeewa Bandara while the others were a lawyer and a union representative.
Bandara told Ceylon Today, student leaders are now increasingly receiving death threats by armed forces and are being accused of terrorism.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in Colombo he charged that the government is taking extreme measures to suppress university student activists.
At the beginning, student activists were suspended from university, but now, armed forces are deployed to repress them. Student Union Leaders have also been targeted, and are now being threatened with imminent arrest, he said.
“Armed forces who claim to be policemen in civil clothes have been looking for me, claiming that I have connections with the underworld, the LTTE and the Tamil Diaspora. On Monday night, they had broken into the Socialist Student Union’s office and demanded to know if I was there,” said Bandara, adding that so-called policemen had been breaking into other places attempting to find him as well.
Bandara said he was always in the public eye, and if the police wanted to arrest him, they could do it at any time; instead of harassing and threatening other students.
The IUSF has been fighting for the rights of university students, and against the privatization of universities. Bandara questioned how these activities could be linked to terrorism, when former LTTE terrorists are now working with the government.
“The reason the government is working with former terrorists is to have access to the LTTE funds. And now when students are protesting for their rights, they are accused of conspiring against the government,” he alleged.
Bandara charged that terrorism is when violence and threats are used to intimidate people for political purposes and added that the government deploying armed police, army and armoured vehicles to repress and threaten undergraduates, is also terrorism.
He also charged the police had no right to threaten student leaders.
In addition to handing over the letter of complaint to the IGP, the IUSF will also lodge complaints with the Human Rights Commission (HRC), and international human rights organizations, he said.
Aisha Nazim
CT
‘Jana Aragala’ office raided by Anti Terrorist Unit
The ‘Jana Aragala’ Movement says that, the anti Terrorist Unit has tried to search the office of the Socialist Students Association, the student’s organization of the ‘Jana Aragala’ Movement, situated at Homagama, last night.
Mr Duminda Nagamuwa, the Operational Coordinator of the movement says that, since this group has tried to search their office saying that they are underworld activists, they have made a complaint at the Homagama Police Station, in this regards.
However, the Police Media Spokesman has said that, investigations in this regards are being conducted