Leaders and members of various political parties and other outfits paid homage to the victims of ‘Perungamanallur massacre’ on the remembrance day, which fell on Monday.
They paid floral tributes at the ‘Black pillar,’ erected in memory of the victims at the place of the massacre in Perungamanallur in Peraiyur taluk.
On April 3, 1916, 16 persons from Piramalai Kallar community, including a woman, were shot dead and as many as 63 people were tortured under detention for their opposition to the Criminal Tribes Act of 1911. The community was, in particular, objecting to the practice of registering the fingerprints of all the members as per the Act.
The Act was repealed only after independence, following sustained agitations against its draconian nature.
