SLPP persons harass senior Tamil journalist Parameswaran in Jaffna

Persons of Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP), a constituent of ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), caught and held N. Parameswaran, a senior Tamil journalist in Jaffna peninsula, the correspondent of BBC Tamil service and Daily Mirror, Saturday from 9:00 a.m til 9:30 in front of the SLFP office located at Veampadi Veethi in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. This office is actively engaged in getting SLFP membership forms signed by the resettled Vanni displaced persons in Jaffna on the pretext that the forms are to be used to get information about their children gone missing during the war and to give them relief food, and Parameswaran was caught and held for nearly half an hour as he tried to expose the motive of the forms to the Vanni IDPs waiting in queue to get them, the sources further said. Police, on being informed of the incident freed Parameswaran.

SLFP organizer for the districts of Jaffna and Vanni Thilakumara Udugama and leader of SLPP who had been excluded from the SLFP list of candidates contesting Jaffna electoral district had submitted a list of candidates contesting as an independent group.

S. Gunarasa, popularly known as writer ‘Chengkai Aazhiyaan’, is one of the candidates of the independent group of Thilakumara Udugama and it is said that he was present at the scene when Parameswaran was harassed by Udugama’s men.

Gunarasa being involved in the incident has sent a wave of shock among the media community in Jaffna peninsula, the sources added.

Parameswaran had written several articles in Jaffna ‘Uthayan’ daily exposing the fraudulent activity of enrolling unsuspecting IDPs as members of SLFP and he was trying to distribute copies of the articles to the IDPS who were queuing up to fill in the forms paying 20 rupees per person.

Two weeks ago Thilakumara Udugama had claimed that 26,000 persons have enrolled themselves as members in SLFP in Jaffna peninsula.

Udugama’s men who harassed Parameswaran had confiscated his mobile phone, camera and other personal belongings when they caught and held hid Saturday morning.

Parameswaran is a much respected senior journalist with a long service of record in Jaffna.

© Tamil Net