Unemployed graduates who blocked the street in Fort jamming the flow of traffic since Thursday were forced to disperse when riot police fired tear gas yesterday. Pic shows a policeman with tear gas canisters in his hand helping a young girl lying on the road affected by the fumes. Picture from Colombo based daily, the Daily Mirror(October, 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The third batch of graduates who were trained under the 'Tharuna Aruna' program says that their cause cannot be defeated by barbaric attacks by the police and is preparing to launch a fast-unto-death until their grievances are addressed.
The grads say that despite the police brutally cracking down on their protest staged in Colombo on October 04th to call for employment, they will go to the extreme and begin a death fast in front of the Fort Railway Station on October 08th.
"None of the politicians who rode to power on our efforts have thus far given any regard to our unemployment, although we are graduates and underwent training under the 'Tharuna Aruna' Programme," Prasad Bandara Herath, Convener of their association said.
He also alleged that the peaceful demonstration they had staged and the attempt to handover a petition to the Presidential Secretariat were inhumanly suppressed by the police.
"Not a single official inquired into our plight although we remained in the streets till the afternoon of the following day. Claiming that they had obtained a court order to evict us, the police attacked us with teargas and pressurized water and also baton-charged us. Our brothers and sisters, who were cornered into the Fort Railway Station, among them many injured, were then herded into jeeps and taken away," Herath added.
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