Govt will ensure security of everyone: Law and order will be maintained:
Chaminda PERERA
The government yesterday stressed that it will deal firmly with terrorist elements who were responsible for recent incidents in several parts of the country. According to Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the maximum punishment will be meted out to the criminals who were involved in the murder of a policeman in Puttalam.
He said that the government is bound to ensure the security for each and every person in the country and criminals who are involved in certain incidents in several parts of the country would be brought to book soon.
He said that the incident which took place at Puttalam claimed the life of a police officer who had no connection with any incidents. He said that the wrong doers in those incidents and in the following murder of the police constable would be given the maximum punishment according to the law.
He said that the government is ready to deploy the Police and the Security Forces to nab the wrong-doers behind this incident. “This police constable who was on traffic duty was beaten to death by them,” he said.
The Defence Secretary was addressing the trustees of mosques in the Batticaloa, Ampara, Trincomalee and Puttalam districts at the Defence Ministry yesterday.
Defence Secretary Rajapaksa requested the public not to fall prey to those who have resorted to various means to incite the people against the law enforcement authorities to achieve what they want. .
The Defence Secretary added that the members of the public have all the rights to make complaints to the senior officials of the Police if they are not satisfied with the investigations that were carried out over several incidents involving the grease monster.
“We will deploy the Security Forces if Police fail in bringing the culprits to book,” he said.
He stressed that the public taking the law into their hands is not the answer. The Defence Secretary said that a group of people have surrounded military camps in the East following the incidents involving the monsters. “Surrounding military camps by a group of people in the night is a serious violation of the law. Persons involved in terrorist activities might have got into this group of people and they would have acquired weapons in the camps if they entered it,” he said. The Defence Secretary stressed that the Sri Lankan Security Forces who eliminated one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the world can face any challenge to maintain law and order. “The military exercised utmost restraint in the face of provocations by this group of people,” he said.
He rejected rumours being spread by certain segments of society that these incidents involving monsters are organized by the government.
The Defence Secretary said that rumours are spread that these incidents are carried out with the knowledge of the government to extend the Emergency. Rajapaksa said that the government does not require neither the services of suspicious elements nor ‘monsters’ to get the Emergency Regulations extended.
He said that the President took a decision to relax the Emergency Regulations after considering the prevailing security situation in the country. “It is neither the grease monsters nor foreign countries who can take decisions with regard to the extension of Emergency Regulations,” he said.
Rajapaksa said that the country is enjoying the dividends of peace after a lapse of 30 years and the government does not want to disrupt it. He also rejected rumours that members of the Security Forces are involved in these incidents.
The Defence Secretary said that the members of the Security Forces and the Police who made great sacrifices for the establishment of peace in the country are breathing a sigh of relief with the dawning of peace in the country. He said that these Security Forces personnel and the Police do not want to disrupt this situation. Senior DIG Pujith Jayasundera gave a full description of what actually happened in Puttalam. Chief of Defence Staff Air Chief Marshall Roshan Gunathillake, Army Commander Lt. Gen Jagath Jayasuriya, Air Force Commander Air Marshall Harsha Abeywickrema, Navy Commander Vice Admiral D.W.S.A. Dissanayake and IGP N.K. Illangakoon and Defence Ministry officials attended the meeting.
CDN