To highlight the grievances a mass hunger strike will be launched by more than 20,000 northern civilians who have no access to their lands, on February 15, Ceylon Today reported.

The mass hunger strike is to be held from the Tellippalai Durga Devi temple premises calling for the withdrawal of Security Forces from lands owned by the civilians prior to the escalation of the war.

At the Valikamam North Town Council premises where civilians who still live in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the peninsula, a special meeting in this regard was held on Friday (1).

With no access to their homes and agricultural lands they complained that their agricultural lands have been acquired  and that their houses have been demolished by the Security Forces.

They also said that they are presently facing the danger of losing their own properties to the Security Forces as their means of livelihood have been badly affected.

A new fence, erected by the Security Forces through the Myliddy area in the early part of last year, has prevented the IDPs from going to their homes and lands.

The houses that had been well constructed in the recent past, within the newly erected fence, have been bulldozed, sources said.

The civilians who also had been affected, staged a similar protest at the same venue last year, but were dispersed by the Security Forces, they added.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)

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