I'rakkaamam Police behaves as occupying Sinhala Force: Muslims

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 September 2017, 19:23 GMT]
The SL police in I'rakkaamam was behaving as an occupying Sinhala force taking the side of the encroaching Sinhala Buddhist monks, blame Tamil-speaking Muslims in Ampaa’rai. The Sinhala police was blocking the Muslim villagers who protested against the extremist Buddhist monks who were attempting to expand an access route to the foothill of Maayakkalli-malai, where the monks placed a Buddha statue last year amidst opposition from Tamils and Muslims. The president of the Federation of Mosques in I'rakkaamam, Mr A.H.M. Aswar said the SL Police was blocking the Muslim protesters while allowing the intruding monks and their supporters to continue with their aggression. The SL Police was also refusing to register a complaint. Maayakkalli-malai is located between the Tamil village of Maa'nikka-madu and the Muslim village of Varip-paddaagn-cheanai, 14 km southwest of Ampaa'rai town.

After experiencing one-sided behaviour of the SL police, the Muslim protesters went to the police station. But, the SL Police refused to accept a complaint saying there was already a complaint on the issue.

The confrontation comes after Buddhist monks backed by the extremist Buddhist Power Force (Bodu Bala Sena) put up a Buddha statue at the hilltop of traditional Tamil village of Maayak-kalli-malai in October 2016.

The officials of the SL State in the district have been systematically promoting the extremist monks while the unitary SL State mechanism in Colombo was supporting the move through the campaign of tourism from South to East to sustain the Sinhalicisation project. The occupying SL military has been engaged in facilitating infrastructure to the visiting Sinhala pilgrims and the tourists from the South.

Sinhala extremists, the officials and the SL Police are also setting the Tamil-speaking communities against each other in the dispute surrounding the Sinhala Buddhicisation project at Maayakkalli-malai.

There are around 150 Tamil families that live in the area. The war-affected Tamil families have been complaining that Muslims had encroached into their lands during their displacement. The extremist monks have seized the opportunity to advance their agenda.

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