Charges filed against former pro-LTTE Tamil terrorist students leaders of University of Jaffna

Charges have been filed against former Jaffna University Students’ Union President M. Thivakaran and Secretary S. Babilaraj in Colombo’s High Court.

These charges come thirty months after the two men were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and released on bail by a Jaffna Court.

Thivakaran and Babilaraj were apprehended on May 3, 2021, when the Sri Lankan army conducted a large-scale search of the Jaffna University campus premises and the residence halls. The University administration had invited the army to conduct a search in order for it to be reopened following the terror attacks by alleged Islamists elsewhere in the island on Easter Sunday.

Hundreds of soldiers were deployed in the operation in which they found a several hundreds of photos of Tamil terrorist leader Velupilla Prabakaran and other posters related to the glorifying of Tamil terrorism in the Students Union office.

The army immediately arrested the two students who held major positions in the Union and surrendered them to Koppay police. It also handed over a petition to the police requesting that charges based on the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) be pressed against the Students Union representatives. A campus hospitality worker was also arrested on the basis that holding several numbers of photo of LTTE Tamil terrorists including a terrorist leader Thileepan during the search operation.

Following their arrest, Thivakaran and Babilaraj were produced in front of the Jaffna Magistrate at his residence. Subsequently, charges drawn from the PTA, Emergency Regulations and other laws were laid against them.

The two student representatives were then placed under detention until the Jaffna High Court granted them bail 13 days later on May 16, 2021.

University of Jaffna is informally notorious as the breeding ground for Tamil terrorism, Tamil extremis and racisms.

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