A students’ protest on the issue of Tamils in Sri Lanka, which began on Friday at Loyola College here, spread to other campuses throughout Tamil Nadu on Monday after the police stormed the private premises in Koyambedu where eight Loyola students were sitting on an indefinite fast, past midnight and moved them to hospital.
Though the eight students called off their fast later in the day, the Students Federation for Freedom of Tamil Eelam, the banner under which the protest was launched on Friday with an attempt to march towards the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission, subsequently announced that the agitation would be intensified.
Four student representatives — one each from Presidency College, Madras Christian College, Loyola College and Anna University — who addressed the media, trashed the resolution moved by the US at the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting, saying it was pro-Sri Lanka.
The students also condemned TESO (Tamil Eelam Supporters’ Organisation), which has called for a strike on Tuesday, and said that if the Centre failed to accede to their demands they would start a campaign urging the people of Tamil Nadu to stop paying taxes.
They said students would start a long-drawn protest with boycott of classes and continue it till the formation of a separate Tamil Eelam, which is one of the eight points in their charter of demands.