A protest has been launched demanding the release of eight people who were arrested and imprisoned by the police in a Shiva temple located on a rock in Vanni, which has been worshiped for more than two centuries. Sri Lanka Latest News
On the night of March 8, eight Hindus were arrested by the police on the night of March 8, when they were performing night worship at the Adi Lingeswara Temple located on the Vedukkunari hill in Nedunkeni area of Vavuniya district, accusing them of conducting a special puja during the night.
According to the court orders and the Archeology Act, the police informed the Hindus that they cannot perform pujas in the area after 6 pm, but the police arrested them for performing pujas despite the instructions.
The arrested temple priest Thambirasa Madimugarasa (45) including Thureirasa Tamilchelvan (28), Mahendran Narenthiran (29), Sivam Lakshan (28), Kandasamy Gourikanthan (24), Thilakanathan Kinduyan (28), Rasarathnam Vinayagamurthy (30), Subramaniam Thawapalam ( 35) have been remanded until the 19th of March according to the orders of the Vavuniya Magistrate Court.
Reporters from the province say that since March 12, when they were presented to the court, five people have been on hunger strike in Vavuniya prison without taking any food. The Tamil National People’s Front states that it is a misleading and false statement made by the prison commissioner Gamini B. Dissanayake to the Colombo-based media that the prisoners are not on a hunger strike.
“He is saying that either to create a distressing situation for the fasting group or with an ulterior motive to pressure them and force them to eat,” said Selvarasa Gajendran, a Member of Parliament who issued a video announcement.
Hundreds of civil organizations, religious leaders, politicians and local residents, who started a protest march in Nedunkeni town on March 15, demanding the immediate release of the eight imprisoned Hindus, came in front of the Nedunkeni police station and marched to the bus stand. .
Emphasizing that Vedukkunari is a group of Tamils, they further demanded that Nedunkeni police should stop the repression.
