During a demonstration on April 24, they noted that since the end of the war in 2009, 70 acres of paddy and other land belonging to 40 families at Kanguweli have been seized.

They are having deeds, issued in 1970 and 1985, for the land at Mudalaimadu and Padukattuvettai, but complaints to the president, ministers, MPs, district secretary and the divisional secretary have not resolved the problem, they said.

Legal redress at Muttur courts sought by the people of Kandaweli yielded no results either.

The people of Kanguweli revere the sage Agattiyar (Agasti), and a historic Sivam kovil opened by him has been banned by the Army from performing rituals since 2009.

In March 2014, a group of Sinhalese led by a Buddhist monk had arrived there and taken over the kovil, which had been under renovation work, and turning it into a Buddhist temple, the protestors alleged, jdslanka.org reports.