Day of mourning in Jaffna concludes without incidents

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 October 2005, 02:56 GMT]
Residents in Jaffna district observed a day of mourning Sunday called by the Tamil National Resurgence Consortium to pay respect to Nirojan Tharmarajah (20) killed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fire and to the several civilians injured during the rape protest at the outside the Puthur East Vaharavathai SLA camp on Friday. Nirojan funeral was also held Sunday, sources in Jaffna said.

Black flags were flown in several towns and villages and, patriotic anthems and sombre music were played across the towns, residents said.

Nirojan's body was kept for viewing by the public at his Puthur east residence where hundreds or mourners gathered to pay respect. Several Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, student representatives from International Tamil Student Union and district residents participated in the funeral.

Anti-riot squads and police were deployed around Puthur town to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order.

Meanwhile, more than one hundred families with homes close to the Annamar Kovil SLA camp, near which the shooting took place, have fled their homes fearing reprisals from the Sri Lankan soldiers. They met TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran to obtain support from the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to ensure personal safety in returning to their residences.

Further, the United Socialist Party candidate Mr Dias competing in the forth coming Sri Lanka Presidential elections, had arranged to have a propaganda meeting at the Conference Hall at the Jaffna Multi-purpose Co-operative society building Sunday.

However, due to notices warning against holding the meeting during a time of escalating tensions and when residents have been called to boycott the elections, displayed at the meeting site, the organizers decided to cancel the meeting, sources in Jaffna said.