Puttalam fishermen protesting against fishing by
‘non-fishermen’ Pic by Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe 
Twenty-four-year-old
Chandrika Kumara, a housewife, in the sleepy hamlet of Bilbewewa in the
Anuradhapura District, chose to join four others on Monday night for a ride in
the small trailer of a two wheel tractor to attend a funeral.
Little did this mother of a four-year-old child realise it was a journey that would end in her death. Four of her companions, seriously injured, are now lying at the Anuradhapura base hospital.
Little did this mother of a four-year-old child realise it was a journey that would end in her death. Four of her companions, seriously injured, are now lying at the Anuradhapura base hospital.
Tragedy
struck them when a speeding van crashed into the tractor. Except for being one
more for Police Headquarters statistics of traffic accidents and resultant
deaths, the incident would have been forgotten. The number of road deaths, even
Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena remarked rather effusively not so long ago,
was higher than those who died of dengue.
That
was not to be. Almost an entire hamlet turned up outside the Tambuttegama Police
Station. They blocked the main Kurunegala-Anuradhapura highway for more than
three hours on Thursday and staged a protest. They carried the coffin which had
the body of Chandrika. Their grouse — Police had “under reported” the facts of
the traffic accident resulting in the driver of the van receiving bail in court.
Police were forced to fire tear gas after the crowds, estimated at more than a
thousand, tried to enter the police station. They hurled back to the police
premises tear gas canisters directed at them. Some even threw stones damaging
windows of the police station. Police had to call for reinforcements.
