Sri Lanka: six students arrested in violent repression of protest

Event
Country
  • Sri Lanka
Initial Date
Mar 8, 2023
Event Description

Six university students who were arrested during Wednesday (8) night's protest at the Kelaniya University will be produced to the Mahara Magistrate on Thursday (9).

Sri Lanka Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse a group of university students at the Kelaniya University premises. This protest commenced at around 9 PM on Wednesday (8).

This protest was organized against the arrest of Student Leader Kelum Mudannayake, and Student Activist Dilshan Harshana, and the students demanded their immediate release.

Though tear gas and water cannons were used multiple times to disperse the protesting students, they continued to engage in the protest until midnight.

One lane along the Colombo - Kandy main road was completely blocked due to the protest, disrupting the movement of traffic.

Impact of Event
7
Gender of HRD
  • Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
Violation
  • (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
  • Judicial Harassment
  • Violence (physical)
Rights Concerned
  • Freedom of assembly
  • Freedom of expression
    • Offline
  • Right to healthy and safe environment
  • Right to liberty and security
  • Right to Protest
HRD
  • Student
Perpetrator-State
  • Police
Source

News FIirst

Monitoring Status
Pending
Event Location

Latitude: 6.925436424289132

Longitude: 79.86040776432782

Event Location
Summary for Publications

On 8 March 2023, six students were arrested by the police who used teargas and water cannons to repress a protest to demand the release of political prisoners in Colombo, Sri Lanka.