Sri Lanka policeman assaults and arrest two Tamil youth

A video showing a Sri Lankan Sinhala Buddhist police officer mercilessly assaulting two Tamil youth on the streets for an alleged traffic offence have gone viral in social media.

After kicking, punching and elbowing one young man the traffic policeman goes on to beat the other by removing the victim’s riding helmet before boxing him on the ear, while abusing them in filth.

The policeman from the Eastern town of Eravur donning a white Buddhist blessed thread known as the ‘Pirith Noola’ in Sinhala around his right wrist, had accused the boys of not heeding a signal to stop the motorcycle they were riding.

“Oi, did you take us for a eunuch police force,” the policeman with the service number 61169 can be heard shouting.

The two boys, Tissasekaram Dilip and Thillainathan Kalaiarasan, residents of Arumukaththan Kudiyiruppu GN Division in Chenkaladi, were arrested by the policeman after the assault and taken to the Eravur police station, according to local journalists.

'HR cases should be dropped'

Last week, addressing a Community Police Empowerment Program in Kandy in Central Sri Lanka, Public Security Minister Rear Admiral (Retd) Sarath Weerasekara was quoted telling the audience that 'human rights cases filed against police officers for carrying out their duties will be dropped if charge sheets were not completed within a six-month time frame'.

Drawing attention to the increasing pattern of police violence in the war ravaged eastern districts, Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam has tweeted on Friday that the 'police brutality continues in Batticaloa and fall on the deaf years of" minister Weerasekara. 

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On 2 September, freelance Muslim journalist Shaeer Khan Farookh of Adddalaichenai in the Eastern District of Ampara was assaulted by the Police before being arrested and dragged away for not wearing a face mask outside his house.

Three days later, on 5 September, in a similar incident, two Tamil siblings, Mahendiran Keerthiseelan and Mahendiran Anujan who were residents of Vavunikulam in Batticaloa were stopped and savagely beaten by the Police while they were returning home from a nearby petrol station in Thandiyadi.

On the same day, a Tamil resident of Kokuvil, Joseph Mathan, was tortured by the police to obtain a confession, after he was summoned to the police station for an inquiry about a personal dispute. 

© JDS