செவ்வாய், 11 ஜூலை, 2017

STF deployed escalating tension in Vadamaraadchi after civilian shot and killed by SL Police

STF deployed escalating tension in Vadamaraadchi after civilian shot and killed by SL Police

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 July 2017, 06:08 GMT]
Two policemen of occupying Sri Lanka shot and killed a daily wage worker on Sunday in Jaffna while he was in a vehicle that was transporting illegally scooped sand. The SL policemen chasing the vehicle in their motorbike have intentionally fired targeting the youth who was seated on top the sand, the family said. The victim, 24-year-old Yogarajah Thinesh, had lost his father in the genocidal war and the family was dependent on his income. He was looking after the family of his sister, who had also lost her husband in the war, the relatives said. Tension prevailed in Thunnaalai in Vadamaraadchi South-West on Sunday and Monday as the villagers were agitating against the SL police, demanding the killers to be identified and brought to justice. SL military and STF were preparing to cordon off and deploy a crackdown style arrest operation after the funeral on Tuesday, the residents alleged.
STF deployed in Vadamaraadchi

24-year-old Yogarajah Thinesh, gunned down by SL Police on Sunday
24-year-old Yogarajah Thinesh, gunned down by SL Police on Sunday
Sand dunes in Vadamaraadchi
Hemmed between Indian Ocean and Tho'ndaimaanaa'ru lagoon, silica-rich golden sand deposited by Northeast Wind making the Northeast coast of Jaffna peninsula. [Satellite Image Courtesy: Google Earth, Details & Legend: TamilNet]
Following the agitation on Sunday and Monday, an SL police spokesman in Colombo announced that two police officers, including a Sub-Inspector, have been temporarily suspended from their duty and remanded for 14 days.

The remanded sub-inspector is a Tamil and the constable is a Muslim, SL police sources in Jaffna said.

However, villagers from Thunnaalai allege that the SL police intended to make an example by killing a Tamil sand scooper.

A similar violent incident by STF was reported in Kachchaay in Thenmaraadchi a few months ago.

But, Sinhala sand scoopers who operate with military backing are operating with SL police protection, the villagers said. The SL military-backed sand mining has been irreversibly destroying the environment in Jaffna. The SL Police while protecting the destruction of the Sinhala traders is only targeting Tamils, the angry villagers said.

Tamil activists confronting the sand scooping through peaceful means have been assassinated, threatened and harassed by the occupying Sinhala military and paramilitary groups after 2009.

There was no need to shoot and kill the youth who was employed by a contractor engaged in the illegal sand scooping. A shot at the tire would have stopped the speeding vehicle. And why didn’t the police do it, the villagers question.

A police post was smashed by angry villagers on Sunday and there were also incidents in which SL police vehicles were stoned by the public in the area. Traffic remained blocked as the protesting villagers had put tires ablaze across the roads.
Protesting villagers at Thunnaalai
Protesting villagers at Thunnaalai


Armed Sinhala STF commandos in Buffel armored vehicles and Sinhala military soldiers in field bikes have been deployed in Vadamaraadchi South-West. A condition of curfew prevails also on Tuesday morning.

STF commandos were seen guarding the police stations at Point Pedro and Nelliayadi as well as the Point Pedro Court and Manthikai hospital.
STF deployed in Thunnaalai, Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna
STF deployed in Thunnaalai, Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna


The villagers compare the incident to the killing of two Tamil students of the Art Faculty of the University of Jaffna in October 2016 at Kokkuvil in Jaffna.

These killings were cold-blooded acts and they remind the people how police violence targeted Jaffna with terror in the late 70s as a measure to silence peaceful protests after enacting ‘Sri Lanka’ constitution in 1972. The same situation is now repeating, political observers in Jaffna said.

The families of the two Tamil students killed by Sinhala policemen in October last year were promised compensation by SL President Maithiripala Sirisena. But, the families are yet to receive anything, news sources in Jaffna said.

The STF, formed during the times of late SL President J.R. Jayawardene and trained by the British, is a full-fledged military outfit organised under the SL Police Department targeting the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. It functions as an extended arm of the SL military receiving instructions from the SL Defence Ministry in Colombo. The STF was directly engaged in brutal acts of genocide in the East as well as in Vanni during the war.

After the genocidal onslaught in May 2009, Colombo has been stepping up the deployment of the notorious STF commandos in all the districts in the Northern and Eastern provinces. There are currently more than 8,000 STF personnel attached to 69 camps, most of them situated in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils in the North and East of the island.
Tires burnt after SL police killing Tamil youth in Vadamaraadchi
Point Pedro - Kodikaamam Road was blocked by angry civilians

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