Sri Lanka to stop involuntary registration of Tamils

The Sri Lankan government on Thursday pledged in court to abandon an operation to make the northern Jaffna residents register with the authorities.

The main Tamil political party Tamil National Alliance's Jaffna district parliamentarians had filed a fundamental rights petition claiming the move was discriminatory of the Jaffna residents.

The MPs told the court that Jaffna residents had been asked to fill registration forms in the Sinhala language with themselves being photographed by the security authorities.

The TNA said the move contravened the equality of all before the law.

The state attorney at this stage informed the Supreme Court that the Jaffna authorities had agreed to stop the operation with immediate effect.

The state had earlier maintained that the move was in line with the government's security procedures to maintain law and order in Jaffna, which was once a stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Source: Xinhua