March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

COLOMBO, March 10: Sri Lanka’s opposition Peoples Alliance and the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, in a well-planned and combined protest against the ceasefire on Monday afternoon, gathered an impressive crowd during a protest march against the United National Front government and what it called was the “UNF’s peace racket” with the LTTE.

While roads in central Colombo were completely blocked as a result of the anti-peace march and schools in the vicinity were forced to close in the morning hours, under a special prime ministerial directive, the police, military and the Special Task Force were kept alert and on guard in Tamil-populated areas in the country’s capital.

This directive came after President Kumaratunge informed him of information gathered by her intelligence service that Tamil houses and companies were to be attacked on the day of the protest.”

However, as many Tamil shops in Colombo remained closed due to fear, no such event took place and the protest which was largely calm continued here in Colombo.