Sri Lankan police officers have been caught on camera demanding that a Tamil shopkeeper remove red and yellow flags that he raised outside his store in Vavuniya to commemorate Maaveerar Naal this week, as the state's repression attempts ramps up.
The police officers, who spoke only in Sinhalese, demanded the red and yellow flags be removed outside former combatant S. Aranvinthan’s store in Thonikkal, Vavuniya.
They claimed that a court order had blocked any Maaveerar Naal commemoration activities and demanded that the flags be removed, claiming that hoisting them was a prohibited public act.
“The police had come in connection with the flag hoisting,” said Aravinthan after the incident. “I have informed the police that we have the right to commemorate Maaveerar Naal or the right to remember in our houses.”
The incident comes as the Sri Lankan security continued their harrassment of Tamils across the North-East in the run up to Maaveerar Naal.
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