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Two MPs among 27 Tamils banned from Mullivaikkal commemorations

Seven police stations in the Mullaitivu district have obtained court injunctions against 27 individuals, including two MPs, preventing them from carrying out Mullivaikkal commemorations.

The applications were put in by the Mullaitivu, Puthukudiyiruppu, Mankulam, Oddusuddan, Mallavi, Iyankankulam and Mulliyawalai police stations.

The 27 individuals include elected politicians and civil society activists. The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) MPs Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and Selvarajah Kajendran were targeted by three different police stations.

The Mulliyawalai police did not single out individuals but requested a blanket ban on Mullivaikkal commemorations within its area.

The bans come in the midst of a crackdown on attempted commemorations of the genocide, and on the same day when the Mullivaikkal memorial was found smashed and a memorial stone stolen from the regular commemoration site. Although the Sri Lankan army has denied responsibility for the attack, the site had been cordoned off by soldiers at the time and boot prints left near the damage.

The 27 individuals served with injunctions are:

  1. Tamil National People’s Front MP and leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

  2. Tamil National People’s Front MP and general secretary, Selvarajah Kajendran

  3. Head of the Mullaitivu district association of the families of disappeared, Mariyasuresh Eeswari

  4. Former Northern Provincial Council member, Thurairasa Ravikaran

  5. Former Northern Provincial Council member, Andiaiya Bhuvaneswaran

  6. Chair of the Karaithuraipattu Divisional Council, Kamalanathan Vijinthan

  7. Vice chair of Puthukudiyiruppu Divisional Council, Kanagasundaraswamy Jenamejayanth

  8. Member of Puthukudiyiruppu Divisional Council, Arumugam Johnson

  9. Member of Puthukudiyiruppu Divisional Council, Ganapathipillai Vijayakumar

  10. Member of Puthukudiyiruppu Divisional Council, Ramalingam Sathiyaseelan

  11. Member of Thunukkai Divisional Council, Raghunathan Suyanson

  12. Antony Jeganathan Peter Ilancheliyan

  13. S. Vimaleswaran

  14. Thavarasa Ganeswaram

  15. Sabaratnam Jayanathan

  16. Thambiya Yogeswaran

  17. Jesudas Peter Jude

  18. Velu Thiyagarasa

  19. Thilakanathan Kinthujan

  20. Raghunathan Dushyanthan

  21. Kunchuthanathan Ravindran

  22. Rasamani Sivarasa

  23. Chinnathurai Vedavanam

  24. Dharmalingam Jeevaratnam

  25. Thangaraja Niranjan

  26. Rasakulasingam Malurasan

  27. Linkeswaran Vailaja 

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