Violence against upcountry Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 12:03 GMT]
A gang of about fifteen Sinhalese armed persons entered the house of a Tamil family in Perk rubber estate in Horana electorate Sunday evening and attacked the inmates mercilessly with clubs and knives. Other Tamil families in the area along with the affected family fled into the nearby jungle to escape further attack from the Sinhalese hoodlums. The violence comes as reports in Colombo said an upcountry Tamil minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, Mr. P. Chandrasekaran was currently under presidential investigation for alleged expression of support to the recent protest campaign lauched by the Tamil Nadu government that sought to protect Tamils in Sri Lanka.

About two hundred upcountry Tamil families are residing in the rubber estate in Kalupahana division. The Sinhalese hoodlums left the place after terrorizing the entire Tamil population that they would return shortly to teach them a lesson, civil sources said.

Tamil families later went to the Horana police station and made complaints and wanted police protection. They complained that they were attacked just because they are Tamils. Those fled for refuge in the nearly jungle returned to their houses the following day, sources reported.

Violence against upcountry Tamils and arrests of youngsters by armed forces have become routine and are in spate in recent times.

'All Tamils in Sri Lanka will be eliminated' is the usual slogan of the attackers.