Court prevents events to commemorate Thileepan in Colombo

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda  

The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court yesterday issued an order prohibiting several organisations from conducting events with rituals to commemorate the death anniversary of Rasaiah Parthipan alias Thileepan in several areas in Colombo, in a manner causing disturbances to the public.  

Colombo Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage issued this order taking into consideration the requests made by police citing that several organisations and individuals including Christian Solidarity Movement and Fr. Marimuttu Satyavel were planning to commemorate Thileepan yesterday (19) within Colombo Fort, Slave Island and Kollupitiya areas causing disturbances to the public. The Fort police further raised concerns over the possibility of creating disharmony among various ethnic groups as it recently happened in Trincomalee.  

On September 26, 1987, Thileepan died as a result of a hunger strike in which he had demanded the Indian government with several requests in the hopes that they would put pressure on the Sri Lankan government to accede to them.