Description

Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka police has been continuously harassing and intimidating Jaffna based Tamil journalist Uthayarasa Shalin for displaying a Tamil homeland map during a festival at Aanaikottai Hindu Temple in the Jaffna district. The most recent harassment was by summoning his brother and friends, in October and November. The festival was held last August at Aanaikkottai, the journalist’s village, with the participation of hundreds of people and the reports of the festival were published in media with photographs of the controversial map. Subsequently,journalist Shalin and five others were summoned by the TID and questioned about displaying the map.Shalin had raised questions about his summoning and stated that he is not a member of temple’s board.However, he was questioned by TID at its Colombo headquarters for hours over his works and personal life. Later, Shalin’s brother Uthayarasa Jelsin,, two other young men of the area including a close friend of Shalin were summoned and questioned by TID. Apart from the TID, several other
police stations of the area have been conducting investigations about the issue and many residents of the area have been questioned. According to Shalin, the investigations were now focusing on him and
the incident has being used by the authorities to intimidate him and silence his work. The journalist has also been subjected to intimidations, threats and assault earlier.