Lankan Tamil secretly ate McDonald's burgers during hunger-strike in UK: Police

(PTI 9 October 2009, 09:05pm IST)

LONDON: A Sri Lankan secretly ate McDonald's burgers while on a hunger-strike outside the British Parliament to highlight the plight of Tamils during war with the LTTE, it was revealed on Friday. According to The Daily Mail, Parameswaran Subramaniyan, 28, had eased his ordeal by eating burgers. The Scotland Yard surveillance teams using specialist monitoring equipment had watched in disbelief as he tucked into the clandestine deliveries.

The hunger strike and demonstrations had left the police with a $7.1 million overtime bill. The Scotland Yard made no official comment but senior sources said police decided against dragging the bogus hunger striker out of his tent for fear it would start a riot.

Police had mounted a 24-hour presence in the Parliament Square from April 6 to June 17.

Several hundred protesters were at the site every day with the numbers swelling to thousands each time there were fresh reports of civilian deaths during the Sri Lankan Government's offensive to end its 25-year--old civil war against the separatist Tamil Tigers.

Protesters were calling Britain to stop Sri Lanka from shelling the last rebel-held enclave, where thousands of civilians were trapped.

The Metropolitan Police, in a statement, said, "The policing operation for the demonstration within Parliament Square also catered for a number of associated events and protest sites.

This included an increase in resources for Prime Minister's Questions, the London Marathon, a march in support of the Tamil community totalling 110,000 people and protests at the Indian and Sri lankan High Commission.

"A total of 29,838 officers worked during the 72-day period," it said.

Around 80 people were arrested in connection with the demonstrations.