{"id":73303,"date":"2021-06-20T16:50:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T21:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=73303"},"modified":"2021-06-20T16:51:45","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T21:51:45","slug":"army-annouunces-probe-into-incident-where-soldiers-assaulted-and-publicly-humiliated-muslim-civilians-for-reportedly-violating-covid-lockdown-rules-in-the-eastern-province-town-of-eravur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=73303","title":{"rendered":"Army Commences Probe Into Incident where Soldiers Assaulted and Publicly Humiliated Muslim Civilians For Reportedly Violating COVID Lockdown Rules in the Eastern Province Town of Eravur."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

A widely-shared image on social media, showing a row of men kneeling in front of soldiers for reportedly violating Sri Lanka\u2019s current lockdown, has prompted the Army to probe the incident.<\/p>\n

Issuing a media statement on Sunday, the Army said \u201cit immediately removed\u201d the personnel from their duties, \u201cafter an alleged improper conduct of a few army personnel\u201d in Eravur, a Muslim-majority town in the eastern Batticaloa district. Initial investigation has begun, the army said, pledging \u201cstrictest action\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan Army, along with health professionals, helms the country\u2019s pandemic response, although government critics have slammed military involvement in addressing a public health crisis. Army Commander General Shavendra Silva heads the \u2018National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak\u2019.<\/p>\n

The incident on Saturday \u2014 which came to light after the photograph of kneeling men went viral online \u2014 has heightened fears in Eravur, locals said. It also comes at a time when there is growing domestic and international \u2014 including UN \u2014 concern over \u201ctargeted attacks\u201d on Sri Lanka\u2019s Muslims, who constitute about 10% of the country\u2019s nearly 22 million population.<\/p>\n

Out of the blue<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forty-four-year-old daily wage earner Mohammed Ismail Marzook of Eravur was already going through a rough patch, with his income shrinking during the pandemic, whose third wave the country is experiencing. The last thing he expected was to be \u201cbeaten and humiliated\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just went on my bicycle to buy my diabetes medicines at our local pharmacy, and a little bit of rice nearby. I even showed the empty box of my pills, but the soldiers forced me to kneel down right there along with some others, with my hands raised,\u201d he told The Hindu. \u201cI explained to them in Sinhala that I am a patient, and that I stepped out only to buy medicines, which is allowed. But they wouldn\u2019t listen, and kept beating me, like they would cattle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Batticaloa MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, who put out a tweet juxtaposing a photograph of a vehicle pile-up on a Colombo road during the current lockdown, and the photograph from Eravur, said the incident showed yet again that it is \u201cone country two laws for this government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to the army\u2019s statement that they would probe the incident, the legislator told The Hindu that the army was \u201cforced to acknowledge\u201d the incident and investigate it, since the image had gone viral on social media. \u201cIf they can investigate this matter now, why can\u2019t they do the same in regard to the Tamils\u2019 long-pending concerns about alleged crimes against humanity by the army at the end of the war? Do they mean to say not even one army member could have committed any wrong?\u201d he asked.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n


\nCourtesy;The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan A widely-shared image on social media, showing a row of men kneeling in front of soldiers for reportedly violating Sri Lanka\u2019s current lockdown, has prompted the Army to probe the incident. Issuing a media statement on Sunday, the Army said \u201cit immediately removed\u201d the personnel from their duties, \u201cafter an alleged improper …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Army Commences Probe Into Incident where Soldiers Assaulted and Publicly Humiliated Muslim Civilians For Reportedly Violating COVID Lockdown Rules in the Eastern Province Town of Eravur.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73305,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73303\/revisions\/73305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}