CHENNAI/COIMBATORE: The anti-Lanka protests are spiralling out of control across Tamil Nadu with more apolitical youth and students coming out on the streets.

It is believed to be the largest ever students’ upsurge for the Tamil cause from seemingly apolitical campuses like IIT and Loyola. It is also touted as the second largest mass protest of students after anti-Hindi agitation.

In Chennai students of the Loyola College and Nandanam Art College continued their campaigns on Sunday conducting meetings and campaigning among friends. Police took 14 law college students into custody during their protest before the Gandhi statue at the Marina Beach.

The peaceful protests against alleged genocide in Sri Lanka gained momentum with more than 400 students from IIT-Madras joined in what is developing into a movement across colleges in the state. Protesters of IIT-Madras comprise students from different states and have also called for similar protests from other IITs in the country.

In IIT-Madras, nearly 70 students took part in a day-long hunger strike on Sunday. Response from the student’s community has surprised the student leaders as nearly 500 students and senior faculty participated in the hunger strike, a panel discussion and peace march late on Sunday evening holding placards and banners written in different Indian languages. L S Ganesh, dean of students of IIT said the students of IIT have showed their way of protest and will continue to maintain that space for opinions in a peaceful way.

A number of protesting students who said the reason for the mass protest is due to the circulation of disturbing photographs of LTTE leader V Prabhakaran ’s son Balachandran supposed to have been taken hours before his death and after it. “The photographs of Prabhakaran’s son that appeared through Internet and media have disturbed us. There is huge response from students due to this,” said Nikhil Ramakrishnan, a protesting student at Presidency College.

This is the first time the Lankan issue has agitated the student community especially among private colleges and even schools. Students of a Government higher secondary school in Coimbatore hit the streets on Saturday demanding that the Union government vote against Sri Lanka at the upcoming UNHRC meet in Geneva.

The men in khakhee and their intelligence network are going haywire in the state and have come up with numerous theories behind the instigation of students ranging from Naxalite groups to fringe pro Tamil Eelam outfits trying to milk the situation and gain a foothold in the state.

“Some pro Tamil outfits are instigating the students and are stage managing the protests against the Union government. We are monitoring the situation. The city has never witnessed any strong student protests since the Anti Hindi agitation in the early 60s,” said a senior police official from Coimbatore.

Similar reports of students plunging into the protest are pouring in from Trichy district and senior police officials from Trichy initially suspected the involvement of Naxal outfits. Though a background check on the involvement of any pro naxalite individuals in organising the protest was clandestinely ordered from the highest government level, police officials in Trichy city confirmed on Sunday that there was no evidence to prove the Naxal theory.

“We are identifying the people who are purposefully trying to create a law and order scenario in Trichy,” said a senior police officer in Trichy city.

A lack of proper co-ordination between the state and central intelligence units is also emerging as major headache in tracking and monitoring the Lankan protest movement across the state. State Intelligence officers claimed that their counterparts from the centre have been asking them to submit video footage of the Lankan protests to identify and profile the agitators.

The main question that is posed in connection with the student protest is the reason behind the vociferous and active participation of student community both from private and government institutions. Though only the law college students are often seen protesting for social causes in the city, the Lankan issue has drawn students from private colleges and universities in large numbers.