No member of Govt. involved in Digana attacks: Rajitha

By Chathuri Dissanayake

An irate Minister Rajitha Senaratne denied allegations levelled against one of his Cabinet colleagues alleged to have links with the extremist groups involved in the recent attacks in Kandy.

Losing his cool at the Cabinet press briefing, Cabinet Spokesperson Senaratne yesterday engaged in a verbal battle with a reporter who raised a question on the involvement of Minister Champika Ranawaka.

Categorically denying all allegations levelled against his Ministerial colleague Ranawaka, Senaratne went on to accuse the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna of spreading rumours to cover up their involvement.

Police Spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara also denied any involvement of any member of the Government, saying that investigations carried out so far had not revealed any such details.

Senaratne however revealed the names of five SLPP Local Government members directly involved in the attacks who have been arrested along with 314 individuals but fell short of naming the Parliament Member and his Secretary who are alleged to be involved in the attack, promising a tell-all in the near future.

«SLPP member Gamini Rajapaksa has been arrested in connection with the Manikhinna Mosque attack while two other SLPP LG members have been arrested for arson. Two Buddhist priests who are also SLPP LG Members,the Priest of Godamunna temple and PiyarathanaThera of NawadagalaTemple, have also been arrested in connection with attacks carried out on religious places in Digana,» he said.

“Further investigations on the involvement of a Member of Parliament and MP›s Secretary are ongoing. There is a lot of information that has been uncovered on them as well.»

Of the 314 arrested in connection with the violence that engulfed Kandy District two weeks ago, 205 people were from Kandy while another 109 people were arrested from other areas of the country. Further, out of the people arrested, 146 were taken into custody under normal law and 166 were locked up under State of Emergency, SP Gunesekara said. 

Another 10 main suspects arrested by the Terrorist Investigations Unit (TID) including Amitha Weerasinghe, the leader of the extremist group MahasonBalakaya, have been remanded till 29 March.

Denying claims that the Police took Dhamma books into custody, SP Gunesekara said that the confiscated items were pamphlets espousing hate speech. He also claimed that seven petrol bombs were uncovered based on evidence revealed given by Weerasinghe.

The Government has also commissioned three different teams to investigate into allegations that members of the Police and Special Task Force (STF) were involved in attacks that spanned over three days across Kandy District.

As the Police and STF struggled to contain the situation that erupted on Monday 5 March continuing till 7 March, despite curfew being imposed, accusations over Police inaction and aiding the attackers became rampant.

As the situation calmed down, CCTV footage allegedly recording some of the attacks on Muslim-owned shops and homes with the support of the Police and STF has surfaced to back the initial allegations. The situation was finally contained when 3,000 Army troops were deployed to the area. A special investigation team has been deployed to the area to investigate police involvement in any incident, while another independent investigation is ongoing by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of the Police, Gunesekara said. 

Further, another officials’ team headed by an Additional Secretary in the Law and Order Ministry is carrying out a separate investigation, Law and Order Minister RanjithMaddhumabandara told reporters.

“Since we have received information on the involvement of the security forces in the attacks, we are carrying out a separate investigation to examine the matter in detail,” Senaratne added.

The three-member President’s Committee will only be appointed once the ongoing investigations are over and reports submitted, Senaratne added.