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Police investigating a ‘hidden hand’ in Jaffna uni violence
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Tight security at the Jaffna University
Police are investigating whether any external element was behind the recent violence at Jaffna University while a committee appointed by the university administration conducts its own inquiry into the matter.
Violence erupted over the disputed staging of a Kandyan dance act during festivities welcoming first-year students to the university on July 16.
“We are investigating every possible way to determine the culprits and the cause behind this incident. We are also looking at whether this just a clash between two student groups or any hidden hand behind the attack. So far, nothing has been established,” Jaffna Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police P.P.S.M. Dharmaratne said.
Based on investigations thus far, police have sent a report to the Jaffna Magistrate and eight students have been summoned to face court on August 25. The move came as academic activities at the university returned to normal.
The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam, said there were no threats to any students and the administration had taken steps to ensure security.
“I notice that most of the students who left after the violent incident have returned to the peninsula. I am requesting parents to send their children back to university since academic exams are coming up next week,” Prof. Arasaratnam said.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Higher Education this week, student turnout is “very positive” and all student unions in the faculties had pledged to uphold a peaceful environment for academic activity.
The three-member internal committee commissioned by the university administration to investigate the violent incident have begun recording statements by senior lecturers, students and others involved in the preparations of the welcoming ceremony on July 16.
University Grants Commission (UGC) Commission, Professor Mohan de Silva, who visited the Jaffna University last week to look into the situation, said the moves would be based on the recommendations of the committee’s report.
“When it comes to a hotspot like Jaffna University, which is still trying to emerge from the impact of three decades of conflict, we are very careful in how we handle the situation,” he said.
The committee is headed by D.K.P.U. Gunathilleke, a member of the university’s Faculty of Engineering who is also Deputy General Manager of the Ceylon Electricity Board (North) and includes senior lecturers Dr. K. Muhunthan and Dr. P.S. Navaratna.
The committee has been reportedly told that an “influential group inspired with leftwing ideology” orchestrated the violent attack.
Sources had said the incident was the consequence of simmering agitation and tensions between students of different ethnicity. The Sunday Times learns that on previous occasions a group instrumental in this unrest had tried to intimidate other students and assaults had been reported to the then dean of the Science Faculty, Professor S. Srisatkunaraja.
The evening before the scheduled welcome ceremony, a group of students had demanded that the Student Committee, which handled the ceremony’s preparations, include a Kandyan dance as most of the first-year students were Sinhalese.
The committee, which has a Tamil student as president and a Sinhalese as secretary, rejected the proposal, saying it was too late to make any changes to the scheduled programme, but assured the group that a Kandyan dance could be staged at the start of a cultural programme of festivities.
The next day, when students were going in procession towards the indoor stadium to watch the cultural festivities following a traditional Tamil welcome, a group including several Kandyan dancers brought from outside suddenly crossed their path. A tense situation followed and suddenly one group went rampant and started to attack others with stones and sticks.
Prof. Arasaratnam said there had been no request by students to have a Kandyan dance as part of the cultural programme, only a request seeking logistical support to have a cultural event.
“That claim is completely untrue. The letter was about requesting logistic support for the function only. The contents of such a programme held in any faculty is approved by the respective dean of the faculty. I was not aware of those developments,” she said.
Professor S. Srisatkunaraja, who retired as dean of the Science Faculty days after the violent incident in keeping with an established plan, said the Student Committee had decided to have a Kandyan dance and a pooja dance inside the stadium following the welcoming ceremony in traditional Tamil style at the entrance to the stadium.
“But suddenly a group students demanded to have it [a Kandyan dance act proceeding] from the university entrance to the hall. I rejected that idea after considering the tension and agitation between the student groups,” he said.
Based on the statement recorded by the police from an injured student admitted to the National Hospital, moves were made for a possible arrest of the leader of the Student Union, who was allegedly involved in violent attacks.
The student, Thankeswaran Sisitharan, presented himself at the Jaffna Magistrate Court on Wednesday morning and asked for bail, which was granted under strict conditions.
Representing the student leader in court, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran said police had not submitted any evidence that Mr. Sisitharan had engaged in violence and that he had, in fact, he had been attacked by other students whose identity he knew well.
Jaffna Magistrate Sinnathurai Satheeswaran instructed Mr. Sisitharan to co-operate in the investigation and released him under two sets of personal bail of Rs. 200,000 each.
A group of parents from the south whose children are studying at Jaffna University requested that authorities take immediate action to ensure a peaceful environment in the university before they send their children back.
| JVP says its hands are clean Dismissing allegations of any involvement with the Jaffna University violence outright, the JVP said extremist forces fearing a strong JVP foothold in the north were spreading falsehoods. Former JVP parliamentarian and organiser for the north, Ramalingam Chandrasekar, who was in Jaffna on the day of the incident, claimed the first thing the JVP did when it came to know about the attack was to contact university authorities and academics to bring the situation under control. “We have a strong youth base inside Jaffna University but it was not involved in any way in this violent incident. We used supporters to calm down their fellow students and to inform other student unions in the south of the situation in order to avoid further violence,” he said. He said the party opposed the government’s initial suggestion to send all the Sinhalese students out of Jaffna following the incident. With the opening of a party office in Jaffna last year, the JVP has begun an aggressive grassroots campaign to spread its ideology.
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