IUSF group seeking a meeting at UGC hindered Police show no mercy as repeated water cannon attacks even affected bystanders

Pic by Pradeep Dilrukshana     

• The group started shouting slogans and the police launched more water cannon attacks

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

Police seemed to have ‘no mercy’ when they repeatedly fired water cannons at a group of Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) members seeking a meeting with the University Grants Commission (UGC) yesterday afternoon at the Lipton Circus, affecting even bystanders.   

A force of several hundred police sleuths including the riot squads backed by a military unit blocked and hindered a group of about 30 IUSF members who gathered at the Lipton Circus around 2.30pm yesterday to go to the UGC to seek a meeting.   

IUSF Convener Wasantha Mudalige who was leading the group demanded the police to let them pass through a wall of police and riot squad officers, saying that they had not come for any protest but to visit the UGC to get a meeting over the ongoing incidents of intimidation at a number of countrywide universities.   

“We are here today not to stage any protest or lead a procession. We have come to seek a meeting with the UGC official to find a solution about the ongoing intimidation targeting students at several universities. So let us through. ”