A protest was held in the Batticaloa town yesterday evening against the burial of the remains of the Batticaloa Zion Church suicide bomber, Mohamed Azath of Kattankudy, in the Hindu cemetery at Kalliyankadu on Tuesday evening.
It was held with the support of public health inspectors and the Grama Niladhari of the area. Four people were hospitalised following the incident, where police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd.
It was said that the remains of the criminal had been buried without the permission of the Batticaloa municipalities. When the public became aware of this fact, they staged the protest under the leadership of Parliamentarian S. Viyalendran. The protestors interrupted vehicles plying between Kalaiyankadu and Thandavanveli. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, but the protestors said that until the remains of the terrorist were removed from the cemetery, the protests would continue.
When the same remains were to be buried in Alayadisolai Cemetery on June 14, the people there protested and the remains were taken back to the hospital mortuary. The former divisional secretary would not allow the burial of the remains in the Kalliyankadu Hindu Cemetery, Bharathi Lane Muslim Cemetery, or even any other cemetery in the area. At the conference held at the Batticaloa District Secretariat, yesterday, Batticaloa Government Agent M. Uthayakumar said that in accordance with the Batticaloa Magistrate Court order, he had requested the Commissioner of the Batticaloa Municipality to bury the remains.
He added that since the Kattankudy Urban Council had refused to bury the remains of the criminal, they have had to go back to courts to exhume the remains and bury the same elsewhere.
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