Tamils protest in Coimbatore over demolition of memorial wall

Irate Tamils staged protests here against the state government's move to demolish a compound wall of the Mullivaikkal Memorial built in honour of Tamils who have died during the civil war in Sri Lanka.

On Friday, the furious Tamils gathered at the district collector's office in Coimbatore and shouted slogans against the state government.

"The compound wall of Mullivaikkal Memorial has been demolished. This memorial was built by World Tamils Confederation in the memory of civilians and militants killed in the ethnic war in Sri Lanka. It has hurt the sentiments of Tamils and we would go ahead and protest further," said a protester, Veeraragavan.

Later, the protesters tried to break through the barricades and laid siege the office of the district collector. However, they were stopped by the police who pushed them into the waiting police vans.

Earlier, the state government's Department of Highways had demolished the wall of the memorial erected by the World Tamils Confederation. The memorial site is closely guarded by the police personnel and entry of people and vehicles have been restricted.

Separatist Tamil rebels battled government forces for 26 years until an army offensive crushed them in 2009.

As many as 40,000 civilians were killed in the last months of the conflict, as government troops advanced on the last stronghold of the rebels fighting for an independent homeland, a United Nations (UN) panel said in 2011.