Colombo: Students in Sri Lanka's Jaffna University on Monday held a march and blocked highways to protest the killings of two Tamil students in police firing last week.
The students blocked the main A9 highway in a sit down protest and handed over a petition to the District Secretaries of Jaffna and Kilinochchi urging government action in the police firing last Friday that killed two Tamil students.
The protesters were demanding filing of murder charges against the policemen responsible for the firing and adequate compensation for the families of the killed students. Six Tamil political parties will stage a similar protest on Tuesday.
The former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) lawmaker Suresh Premachandran said the incident had once again brought to the fore the need to de-escalate the military presence in Jaffna, the erstwhile bastion of the LTTE.
At least five policemen have been remanded for the shooting which killed the two students. Police said the students had defied the order to halt their motor cycle at a road block check point.
