A Sri Lankan law passed in 1978 that gives the police wide discretion and almost unchecked power to arrest, detain, torture, and sometimes execute people suspected of associating with terrorists. This essentially puts the entire Sri Lankan Tamil community under a constant threat of arrest. Daryl visits Sri Lanka to investigate government abuses of power under this act, and the government justifies detaining Jegan by citing it. The law is still in force in majority Tamil parts of the nation.
Prevention of Terrorism Act Quotes in Funny Boy
The Funny Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Prevention of Terrorism Act or refer to Prevention of Terrorism Act. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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3. See No Evil, Hear No Evil
Quotes
“You’re putting your life at risk for nothing,” Amma insisted.
“It’s not nothing,” Daryl Uncle said. “People are being tortured and killed even as we sit in all this opulence.”
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4. Small Choices
Quotes
“How do you know he’s innocent?” my father asked. “We can’t be a hundred percent sure.”
“You mean you honestly think he’s guilty?” Amma asked, astonished.
My father was silent. We all stared at him, angry and hurt that he would really believe this.
“Look,” my father eventually said, “the best thing is to get as little involved as possible. If they find out that Jegan is connected to the assassination attempt, we could be accused of harboring a terrorist.”
“Nonsense,” Amma said. “Why would they accuse us?”
“These days, every Tamil is a Tiger until proven otherwise.”
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Prevention of Terrorism Act Term Timeline in Funny Boy
The timeline below shows where the term Prevention of Terrorism Act appears in Funny Boy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
3. See No Evil, Hear No Evil
...a journalist, has come to investigate claims of torture and government abuses, especially using the Prevention of Terrorism Act .
(full context)
4. Small Choices
...police station, but promises that this is “just routine stuff.” They justified this through the Prevention of Terrorism Act , and Appa stops the family when they insist that Jegan is no terrorist: the...
(full context)
