News

Easter Sunday carnage: SLPP MP calls for probe into attempts to divert public attention

Published

2 years ago

2021/03/10

By Shamindra Ferdinando

SLPP lawmaker Sanjeewa Edirimanne yesterday (9) said a probe had to be held into efforts to divert public attention by blaming 2019 Easter attacks on the then SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa and SLPP founder Basil Rajapaksa.

Responding to The Island queries after he and several other SLPP lawmakers lodged a complaint at the police headquarters in respect of a statement made by Kurunegala District SJB MP Asoka Abeysinghe over the weekend, the Kalutara District MP asserted that in the wake of the release of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PcoI) report on the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) attacks, the breakaway UNP faction was busy propagating lies.

Lawmaker Edirimanne said that MP Abeysinghe wasn’t the first Opposition member to direct accusations at the government over the Easter Sunday carnage.

Last November the CID questioned SJB MP Eran Wickremaratne as regards his accusations. The CID recorded the former UNP State Minister’s statement in the wake of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) lodging a complaint over certain claims he made at a media conference given on Nov 12.

The CID dealt with the MP’s claim pertaining to the funding of the Easter Sunday attackers, the threat on Easter Sunday bomber Zahran Hashim’s widow Abdul Cader Fathima Hadiya and her being detained at the Tangalle prison.

MP Edirimanne said that ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Tragedy: When the Deep State Gets Out of Its Depth’ authored by Rajan Hoole raised the alleged involvement of some sections of the security apparatus in the 2019 attacks and anti-Muslim violence in May same year. The author asserted that the interested parties carried out Easter Sunday attacks and then inspired violence as part of an overall strategy to help Gotabaya Rajapaksa win the election. The MP said that it had been brought to the notice of security authorities.

Edirimannae alleged that the SJB was now making a desperate bid to distance itself from the Easter Sunday carnage and the UNP.

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News

Stay on course and don’t go back to the past – Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Published

8 hours ago

2023/03/24

Priyan

Former Governor of the Central Bank delivering the keynote address at a high profile Webinar hosted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka today (24) said that Sri Lanka must implement the structural reforms proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without relaxing like in the past or else we will be in a deeper economic mess.

The webinar was titled ‘What is next for Sri Lanka in the wake of the IMF programme’

News

Sustainable economic development goals cannot be achieved unless attention is paid to mitigating climate change – Sagala Ratnayake

Published

8 hours ago

2023/03/24

Priyan

President’s Senior Adviser on National Security and Chief of Presidential Staff Sagala Ratnayake said sustainable economic development goals cannot be accomplished without taking steps to mitigate climate change.

He said this while participating in the 10,000 sapling planting program organized by the LEO Youth Vision 2048 Club and the LEO Club at the Royal College, Colombo on Thursday (23rd).

This program was organized in view of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s birthday, which is today (24), and the required plants were distributed to the main schools of the Colombo District.

News

SF claims thousands of police and military personnel leaving

Published

20 hours ago

2023/03/24

Thilina Walpola

By Saman Indrajith

Thousands of police and military personnel had left the services recently as they did not want to carry out illegal orders, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka told Parliament yesterday. According to the war-winning army commander 200 policemen have resigned during the past two months and 25,000 soldiers have left the army during the last two years.

“We urged the law enforcement and military officials not to follow illegal orders. We will reinstate them with back pay,” he said.

Fonseka also urged the President and the government MPs not to take people for fools.

“Sri Lanka owes 55 billion dollars to the world. Ranil’s plan is to borrow another seven billion during the next four years. So, in four years we will owe 62 billion to the world.

Ranil and his ministers ask us what the alternative to borrowing is. These are the people who destroyed the economy and society. They must leave. Then, we will find an alternative and develop the country,” he said, adding that the IMF loans had made crises in other nations worse.

“Ranil says that by 2025, we will have a budget surplus as in Japan, Germany and South Korea. These countries are economic power houses, and this comparison is ludicrous.”