Sri Lanka's new president, Maithripala Sirisena, on Thursday renewed the deployment of the military across the island, reports AFP.
"By virtue of the powers vested in me, I, Maithripala Sirisena, do by this order call out all the members of the armed forces...for the maintenance of public order," read a presidential decree reportedly seen by the news agency.
Sri Lanka's military, which has seen an ever increasing budget and troop deployments since the end of the armed conflict in 2009, is concentrated across the Tamil areas of the North and East.
Condemning the ongoing militarisation and the renewal of the former regime's policy by the new president, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) spokesperson, Suresh Premachandran told AFP:
"We have been asking for the withdrawal of troops from the north and the east, but this order only serves to continue the army presence."
"I strongly believe that there is no need to deploy troops anywhere in the country."
"He [Sirisena] promised change but if he is going to continue what the previous government did, then we are back to square one."
Recent years have seen increasing calls by the Tamil people for the military, which is almost entirely made up of Sinhala personnel, to leave the Tamil areas.
Most recently, the chief minister of the Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran told the visiting British foreign minister, Hugo Swire, that militarisation was the most important issue facing the Tamil people.
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