Ahila Ilankai Thamil Congress (AITC) Parliamentarian Selvarajah Kajendren has accused intelligence officers of having orchestrated the attack on a vehicle carrying an image of Rasaiah Parthipan alias Thileepan of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Kappalthurai, Trincomalee on 17 September.
Thileepan was a member of the LTTE, who died in September 1987 while on a hunger strike after issuing a list of demands to the Governments of India and Sri Lanka. A vehicle carrying his image had started its commemorative journey from Pottuvil in the Eastern Province to Nallur, Jaffna. When the vehicle was passing the Kappalthurai area, a group of people had attacked the vehicle with stones and batons.
Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (18), Kajendran said that he had lodged a complaint with the Thambalagamuwa Police regarding the incident and claimed that the attack had been orchestrated by police and military intelligence officers. “From the beginning of our journey, intelligence officers were following us. When we inquired from them, they said that they were following us as they wanted to provide protection to me, being an MP. They continued to follow us and then this attack took place. We suspect that it was the intelligence officers themselves who guided the mob to attack us.”
Denying the Police’s statement that police officers who were at the scene had tried their best to prevent the attack, he charged that the police officers had been acting in a manner that was advantageous to those who carried out the attack.
Police Media Spokesman, Senior Superintendent of Police, attorney Nihal Thalduwa was not available for comment.
Meanwhile, six suspects, including four males and two females, had been arrested in connection with the attack and were scheduled to be produced before the Trincomalee Magistrate yesterday.
The video footage of the incident that was circulated on social media platforms show several persons, including a female, attacking the vehicle carrying Thileepan’s image with a baton, taking off the garlands, pelting stones at the vehicle, scolding those who were travelling in the vehicle, and obstructing the movement of another car on the road.
When contacted by The Daily Morning on 17 September, Thalduwa said that three police officers who had been on traffic duty on the road had tried their best to control the situation. He said that while no police officer had been deployed to watch the particular matter, three police officers who were on traffic duty on the road had gone to the place and tried their best to prevent the incident.