IIT-B students protest Lankan war crimes

A group of students staged a daylong hunger strike and peaceful protest at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) on Wednesday in support of the agitation against alleged Sri Lankan war crimes. HT reports.

A group of students staged a daylong hunger strike and peaceful protest at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) on Wednesday in support of the agitation against alleged Sri Lankan war crimes.

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The students said they were expressing their solidarity with their counterparts who were protesting at various Chennai campuses, including the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

The students have called for a resolution, stressing an independent enquiry into the war crimes, a referendum for an independent Tamil Eelam and mechanisms under the UN for preventing human rights abuses.

On March 22 the UN Human Rights Council will be voting on a resolution for Sri Lanka to accept and independent probe. The UN has estimated that at least 40,000 people died in the war.

“We did this one-day hunger strike as a solidarity gesture,” said one protesting student at IIT-B. He claimed around 100 students had participated in Wednesday’s protests, with students boycotting meals, wearing black badges and marching through campus with banners.

A signature campaign in the IIT-B campus has also gathered more than 400 signatures so far.

“The IIT Bombay students are showing our solidarity protest against the human rights violation, genocide and war crimes happening in Sri Lanka,” said the student organsiers of the protest in a press release.