Sinhalese undergrads demanding 'victory' money assault Tamil students in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 June 2010, 16:10 GMT]
Some second year Sinhalese undergrads in Eastern University in Vanthaa’rumoolai, under the influence of liquor, assaulted first year Tamil students Wednesday night in their hostel for not contributing money to celebrate the ‘Victory Day’ that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was to Celebrate in Colombo Thursday. On learning this, third and final year Tamil undergrads had joined together and attacked the Sinhalese students. The situation, however, was brought under control by Vice-chancellor S. Premkumar who intervened.

The second year Sinhalese students had demanded money to celebrate the ‘Victory Day’ and the first year Tamil students had refused to do so.

Police guards have been deployed around the hostel of the Sinhalese undergrads.

A separate police division to maintain security in Eastern University which was formed in 2008 following the killing of a Sinhalese undergrad by unidentified men, though present at the location, had failed to prevent the Sinhalese students assaulting the Tamil first year students.