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Govt. urged to seek extradition of Maulana over C-4 allegations

Published

4 months ago

2024/11/25

Thilina Walpola

Focus on clandestine meetings in B’caloa prison, Wanathavilluwa estate

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Former State Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan aka Pilleyan has refuted unsubstantiated claims made by his wartime Media Secretary Mohammed Milhilar Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana in a Channel 4 interview in early Sept. 2023 pertaining to the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage.

Multiple blasts claimed the lives of about 270 people, including 40 foreigners, while nearly 500 sustained injuries.

Chandrakanthan, one-time Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and the leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), has alleged that Maulana, who had been with him during the 2006-2022 period, propagated politically motivated lies in a bid to secure political asylum in Europe.

Chandrakanthan has made his position clear when the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recently questioned him on Moulana’s accusations. Moulana served both Pilleyan and Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, one-time LTTE field commander, after the eastern Tigers sided with Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government.

Addressing the media outside the CID headquarters, Chandrakanthan said the CID, the Yahapalana administration had failed to deal with the threat of religious extremism effectively.

Chandrakanthan served as Rural Road Development State Minister during the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government. The TMVP failed to secure at least a single seat at the recently concluded general election. Chandrakanthan contested from the Batticaloa district, where the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) secured three out of five seats. The National People’s Power (NPP) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) obtained one seat each.

Maulana has alleged that former chief of Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) Maj. Gen. Suresh Sally met Chandrakanthan at the Batticaloa prison where he was held in connection with the 2005 Christmas Day assassination of ITAK MP Joseph Pararajasingham, at St. Mary’s church, Batticaloa.

Maulana also alleged that Maj. Gen. Suresh had met Easter Sunday suicide bombers, including their leader Zahran Hashim on a coconut estate in Vanathavilluwa, Karadiyapuval in the Puttalam district. The whistle-blower is also on record as having claimed that he received a telephone call from Salley on 21 April 2019 morning, the day of the Easter Sunday attacks directing him to pick a person from the Taj Samudra hotel, Colombo.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry that probed the Easter Sunday attacks as well as a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Justice S.I. Imam, which conducted an investigation into the Channel 4 allegations, found that Maj. Gen Salley was neither in the country nor with the DMI at the time of the alleged meetings in Wanathawilluwa and Batticaloa.

Salley was serving at the Sri Lankan Mission in Malaysia at the time, and was at the National Defence College, India when the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) mounted the 2019 attacks.

Chandrakanthan told The Island yesterday (24) that those conducting investigation into Maulana’s allegation that Salley had visited him at Batticaloa prison could easily verify that claim with current prison administration. Chandrakanthan said that he had been held in the Batticaloa prison from 2015 to 2020. Among those held in the same prison at the same time were some of those taken into custody in connection with promoting religious extremism.

“No one could have met me at the Batticaloa Prison without the consent of the prison administration,” the former lawmaker said, dismissing claims that the Easter Sunday carnage had been carried out to facilitate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory in the 2019 presidential election. Nothing could be more ridiculous than the claim that religious extremists mounted Easter Sunday attacks to facilitate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory while at the same time accusing him of harassing minorities, Chandrakanthan said.

Whatever various interested parties said now, Gotabaya Rajapaksa or any other person fielded by the SLPP at that time could have comfortably won the presidential election, Chandrakanthan said, pointing out that the Local Government polls conducted in Feb 28 indicated in no uncertain terms that the southern electorate would overwhelmingly vote for the SLPP at presidential and parliamentary polls, the former State Minister said.

The Batticaloa High Court acquitted and released five persons, including Chandrakanthan after the Attorney General had informed the court that he wouldn’t proceed with the prosecution.

Chandrakanthan emphasised the responsibility on the part of the incumbent government to take tangible measures to have the so-called whistle-blower extradited as quickly as possible. Chandrakanthan alleged that Maulana was taking advantage of the situation to secure political asylum abroad.

The former parliamentarian urged the government to examine the negligence on the part of the security apparatus to handle a specific intelligence alert.

The ex-MP said that he would fully cooperate with the CID though he could not endorse lies under any circumstances. The crux of the matter was Maulana claimed that secret meetings had taken place in Batticaloa and Vanathavilluwa, where explosives were recovered subsequently, hadn’t been verified, Chandrakanthan said.

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French Navy Ship PROVENCE arrives in Port of Colombo

Published

8 hours ago

2025/03/17

Priyan

The French Navy Ship PROVENCE arrived at the Port of Colombo on a formal visit on Sunday (16 Mar 25) morning.

She was welcomed by the Sri Lanka Navy in compliance with the time-honoured naval traditions.

The 142.20m long Destroyer is Commanded by Captain Lionel SIEGFRIED and manned by a crew of 160 members.

During the stay in the island, crew members of PROVENCE will visit some tourist hotspots in the country and the ship is scheduled to depart the island on 20 Mar.

Latest News

Court of Appeal dismisses Ex-IGP’s writ petition

Published

8 hours ago

2025/03/17

Priyan

The Court of Appeal this [17] morning dismissed the writ petition filed by former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon, seeking an interim injunction to prevent the execution of the arrest order issued by the Matara Magistrate’s Court against him.

Latest News

Project to distribute smart boards for 1,000 schools with the goal of enhancing education has completely failed to meet its objectives and the investment of LKR 1.7 billion has been underutilized -PM

Published

12 hours ago

2025/03/17

Priyan

Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya stated that the project to distribute smart boards for 1,000 schools with the goal of enhancing education has completely failed to meet its objectives and the investment of LKR 1.7 billion has been underutilized.

The Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education, Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya made these remarks in the Parliament complex on Saturday [March 15, 2025] while discussing the project to establish networked classrooms by facilitating smart boards to the school system.

The Cabinet Memorandum No. AMP/24/0385/601/027 and the Cabinet decision dated March 4, 2024 has been presented for the approval of the provision of digital smart boards and other related equipment to 1,000 selected schools, with the objective of enhancing education through the establishment of a systematic network of smart classrooms within the school system funded by the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRCSL).

Subsequently, an additional Cabinet Memorandum, No. AMP/24/0978/630/009, dated May 14, 2024, was presented, proposing the implementation of this project in alignment with the project proposed by Chinese government for digitalizing Schools. Under this Chinese-funded project, plans were made to establish a centralized control center and a studio facility, along with the provision of an additional 500 smart boards. Accordingly, the integration of both projects was proposed to create a network of smart classrooms across 1,500 schools.

The cabinet decision has been presented requiring Sri Lankan Government to purchase smart boards with specifications identical to the smart boards which were proposed to be distributed by the Chinese Government.

In line with the Cabinet decision of May 14, 2024, the procurement for the 1,000 smart boards began in July 2024. However, at the time of purchase, the project proposed by the Chinese Government was still at the discussion stage, and no official agreement had been reached regarding the technical specifications of the smart boards.

However, the procurement was carried out through the Sri Lanka State Trading (General) Corporation without a competitive bidding process, relying on price quotations obtained from a single supplier based on unclear sources that were not officially verified by the Chinese government. The Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission incurred the full cost of LKR 1.7 billion, with an additional LKR 430 million allocated for services and installation.

The aforementioned procurement appears to have been conducted at an unusually accelerated pace when compared to the standard procedure typically followed for high-value procurements. Specifically, price quotations were requested on July 5, 2024, opened on July 15, 2024, and by July 16, 2024, the Technical Evaluation Committee had completed and submitted the report. Subsequently, the report was reviewed by the Standing Procurement Committee appointed by the Cabinet on July 17 and 18, 2024, with recommendations being provided on the same day. These recommendations were then submitted to the Cabinet on July 23, 2024, and approval was granted on July 30, 2024. Followed by this, the purchase requisition was issued to the supplier on August 5, 2024. Accordingly, the entire procurement process was completed within a span of one month.

As part of this procurement, a Letter of Credit was opened to facilitate the payment of USD 3,135,392.50 for 1,000 smart boards to Intelligent Express Limited Hong Kong, which has been identified as a representative of Huawei. While the relevant Cabinet paper indicated Huawei as the designated manufacturer supplying the smart boards under the Chinese funding project, the Chinese government has not yet confirmed the selection of such a supplier for this project.

According to aforementioned purchase requisition, the purchased smart boards and related equipment were delivered to the Ministry of Education in October 2024 and are currently stored at Pattala Gedara Teacher’s Training College. Although the procurement of the aforementioned Smart boards by the Sri Lankan Government has been finalized, the relevant project, which was intended to be implemented under the funding of Chinese government, has not yet commenced and a final agreement regarding its implementation has not been reached.

Prior to reaching a final agreement on the network integration facilities and centralized system proposed by the Chinese government, the procurement of these smart boards has resulted in the inability to utilize the equipment for the intended purpose. It is expected that the Chinese aid project is at the discussion stage, and the implementation may extend until the end of this year. Further, no official decision has been made regarding the selection of a supplier for the project.

Given this situation, if the 1,000 smart boards and other equipment currently stored in warehouses are to be distributed to schools, school principals must be provided with clear instructions on their proper use. However, due to the delay in implementing the project under the funding of the Chinese government, specific guidelines on the installation and utilization of the equipment cannot yet be issued.

Since network integration cannot be carried out at this stage, these smart boards can only be used as standalone classroom units. As a result, the objectives of the project will not be met, and the investment of LKR 1.7 billion made might be considered to be underutilized.

A formal investigation has been initiated to determine whether financial and procedural irregularities have occurred in this procurement. Additionally, discussions are currently continued with the Chinese government, and efforts are being made to secure the proposed facilities from China at the earliest convenience.

[Prime Minister’s Media Division]