Chennai: Members of the May 17 movement including its leader Thirumurugan Gandhi, film director Gowthaman and 100 others from various outfits marched towards Marina beach on Sunday to observe the Mullivaikal remembrance day, in spite of the prohibitory orders by the city police.
May 18 marks the remembrance day for the war victims of the 2009 genocide in Sri Lanka in which Tamils were massacred in Mullivaikal at the end of the armed conflict between the Lankan Army and LTTE.
The city police, prepared for a procession by the sympathisers of Tamil Eelam, thwarted the initial attempts by a group headed by May 17 movement founder Thirumurugan Gandhi.
Police presence was beefed up on Marina since noon and the service lanes between Gandhi and Labour statues were closed for vehicular traffic.
However, sympathisers of the cause of Tamil Eelam kept thronging the beach in small groups wearing black shirts and holding posters of slain LTTE leader, Prabhakaran.
Police rounded them up and put them in buses deployed there on standby.
Police sources said that members gathered at two places, Kannagi statue and Valluvar statue, and also successfully carried out the event, eventually facing detention.
By the end of the day, police rounded up around 286 persons. “In all, 34 of them including leader of the May 17 movement, director Gouthaman will be remanded to judicial custody, “ a police officer said. “Some of those who came for the procession damaged public property,” the officer added. Others were let off later in the day.
