Sri Lanka to probe attack on Tamil party meeting

Sri Lanka to probe attack on Tamil party meeting

2011-06-23 05:26:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

COLOMBO (BNO NEWS) -- Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered an investigation into the alleged attack on a meeting of the country's major Tamil political party in Jaffna last week, the Colombo Page reported on Wednesday.

Sources at Sri Lanka President's office said the President has directed the Presidential Investigation Unit to probe the incident. The attack that created controversy and embarrassed the government took place whilst the President was on an official tour in Russia.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said that the army attacked some of its members and disrupted an election rally in the country's north on June 16. The aim of the meeting was to introduce the party's candidates for the forthcoming local government elections in Jaffna.

TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathirajah told the media that more than 100 soldiers entered Alawetti College where the meeting was being held and said the party could not hold a meeting. The soldiers then allegedly forcibly removed the microphones and assaulted the participants, including police bodyguards of the legislators who had intervened.

Sri Lanka was involved in a bloody civil war between the government and the Tamil Tigers from July 1983 until May 2009, killing as many as 100,000 people. Both sides have been accused of war crimes and other human rights violations.

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