Court orders issued prohibiting ‘Thileepan’ commemorations in Colombo

The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court and the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Courts today (September 19) issued an order prohibiting the commemoration of Rasaiah Parthipan alias ‘Thileepan’ in several areas in Colombo, in a manner causing disturbances to the public.

Rasaiah Parthipan alias ‘Thileepan’, was a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which is a proscribed organisation in Sri Lanka, and died while on hunger strike in 1987, during which he had articulated five requests to the Indian Government, aiming to encourage them to apply pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to fulfil those requests.

The court issued this order taking into consideration the requests made by police citing that several organisations are planning to commemorate Thileepan today (September 19) within Colombo Fort, Maradana, Slave Island and Kollupitiya areas causing disturbances to the public.

Accordingly, the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court issued the order prohibiting commemorations in the Kollupitiya, Colombo Fort and Slave Island areas, while the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court issued the order prohibiting the same within the Maradana area.