Hunger striker was lovin' it

"This is a lie to break the strength of the hunger strike and the protest itself. It is not true at all."- Parameswaran Subramaniyan
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By Staff Reporter
Courtesy: the Sun

(October 09, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) A man whose hunger strike was at the centre of a demonstration which cost police £7Million was secretly snacking on McDonald's burgers, it was revealed today. Activist Parameswaran Subramaniyan protested for weeks outside the Houses of Parliament with hundreds of other Tamils about unrest in Sri Lanka.

The protest ended in June after severely disrupting London traffic and costing surveillance cops a whopping £7.1million in overtime.

Now it has been reported that cheeky Subramaniyan was being smuggled cheeseburgers THROUGHOUT his time on "hunger strike".

Big Mac

Police surveillance teams were shocked when they apparently caught the protestor tucking into his snacks on specialist monitoring equipment.


Bogus ... striker was 'eating burgers'

But cops decided against confronting the bogus striker because they were worried it could cause a riot, it was claimed.

A police insider revealed: "In view of the overtime bill, this has got to be the most expensive Big Mac ever."

One source added: 'This was such a sensitive operation that it was felt officers could inflame the situation if we brought the hunger strike and demonstration to a premature end. This is a further example of the complexities of policing London today.'

The cost of policing the Tamil demonstrations was more than the total amount of overtime claimed during the G20 summit in London in April.

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Hunger striker denies eating burger

(AP) A hunger striker has denied tucking into a McDonald's takeaway during one of Britain's longest-running protests.

Tamil Parameswaran Subramaniyan, 28, fasted for 24 days after five of his relatives, including his mother, were killed in fighting in Sri Lanka. He camped in a makeshift tent on the edge of Parliament Square, in Westminster, as thousands of Tamils staged a three-month demonstration.

The protest left taxpayers with a £7.1 million bill. It was claimed that police surveillance teams looked on in amazement as McDonalds burgers were smuggled to Mr Subramaniyan. He said: "This is a lie to break the strength of the hunger strike and the protest itself. It is not true at all."
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And it cost nearly as much as the operation to stop Britain's biggest terrorist plot to blow up several trans-Atlantic flights in 2006 which cost £7.3million.

Police kept a 24-hour presence in Parliament Square from April 6 to June 17.

There were hundreds of protestors at the demonstration every day during the Sri Lankan government's push to end its 25-year civil war.

The protestors wanted the British government to stop Sri Lanka bombing a Tamil Tiger stronghold where thousands of civilians were trapped.

Full details of the overtime claimed were revealed to the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Tim Hollis, a vice president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said in the MPA paper: "Overtime figures reflect the realities of modern policing, including its unpredictability.

"It must be remembered that overtime generally reflects a cost effective and flexible way of meeting additional demands.

"It must, however, be always carefully monitored, calculated and authorised."

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: "The policing operation for the demonstration within Parliament Square also catered for a number of associated events and protest sites.

"This included an increase in resources for Prime Minister's Questions, the London Marathon, a march in support of the Tamil community totalling 110,000 people-and protests at the Indian and Sri Lankan High Commissions.

"A total of 29,838 officers worked during this 72-day period.

"Levels of officers deployed varied based on what police were dealing with.

"The peak for the static protest in Parliament Square reached 5,000. A march on April 11 was attended by in the region of 100,000 people."

-Sri Lanka Guardian