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Monday, 5 January 2015 00:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The protesters of regional Naam Tamilar Katchi party shouted slogans against Khan and Rajapaksa.
Khan, along with Sri Lankan-born Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez, recently visited Sri Lanka to campaign for Rajapaksa on the invitation by latter’s son Namal Rajapaksa.
A protester, Mani Gandam, accused Rajapaksa for killing over thousands of Tamilians in the Sri Lanka war and demanded Khan’s apology to the public.
“All Tamilians are his fan but he has broken our heart by campaigning for Rajapaksa, which is wrong. We will not leave him now,” he said.
Some of the protesters were detained and taken to the police station.
Rajapaksa became the President of Sri Lanka in 2004 and hopes to be re-elected to a third term. More than 100,000 people were killed in 26 years of bloodshed between Sri Lankan security forces and Tamil rebels fighting for a separate state in the north and east of the island. War broke out in 1983 when the Tigers ambushed and killed an army patrol, sparking anti-Tamil riots. Hundreds of Tamils were killed and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes.
The conflict saw massacres, abductions and torture by both sides and thousands of child soldiers were recruited by the rebels, while about one million landmines were also planted. Sri Lanka declared the rebels defeated in May 2009. The Government has since rebuilt roads, schools, hospitals and railways in the former war zone, and cleared tens of thousands of landmines laid during the war.
