Two student activists arrested during protest granted bail

The two members of Medical Faculty Students’ Action Committee, who were arrested on Friday (Oct. 27) during a protest staged in Colombo, have been granted bail.

The two student activists including the committee’s convenor Naveen Tharaka were produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court today (Oct. 28).

On Friday evening, a group of medical students had launched a protest at Green Path, after which the stretch of road was closed for traffic from Nelum Pokuna to the Colombo Public Library.

They urged the government to roll back its ‘attempts to destroy’ free education in the country by conspiring with private institutions, namely Lyceum Campus, NSBM Green University, Gateway Graduate School and the Kotelawala Defence University.

They also accused the government of being involved in a conspiracy to further destroy Sri Lanka’s free healthcare system by imposing allowance cuts and urged that the issues faced by the medical faculties of the Universities of Moratuwa, Wayamba and Sabaragamuwa be resolved immediately.

Later, police used water cannons and fired tear gas on two occasions in an attempt to disperse the protesting student activists.