Former Minister Ramesh Pathirana said in Parliament today that the IGP and the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Defense had prevented President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa from stopping the group that had come to attack Gotagogama and Temple Trees on the 9th.
Speaking further in Parliament, former Minister Ramesh Pathirana said,
“We were informed the day before the incident to bring people to say goodbye and congratulate the former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who was about to resign on the day of this incident. We also brought a group from Galle. The group went to Temple Trees. The absolute desire of the vast majority of those who came there was to give a dignified farewell to the Prime Minister who has served this country for a long time on the day he resign.
We were also at this meeting. At the end of this meeting, we regret to mention that some stupid politicians indirectly influenced the people who came here. It needs to be accepted. Influenced by that, less than 10 percent of the people who came to Temple Trees marched on Galle Road with the mentality of wanting to attack Gota Go Gama. This incident is a very unfortunate incident.
This struggle lasted for a month. The President or no one ever wanted to attack or at least throw a stone at this protest. That is why it existed then and still exists today. That is why I was at Temple Trees when they left to attack. As soon as they left, I spoke to DIG Tennakoon. I said, “There is going to be an unfortunate event. Please stop this.”
DIG Tennakoon told me ‘No problem sir, all the roadblocks have been put up. We will stop this.’ After I made that call, I went to the President’s House for a meeting with the President. When I was at the President’s House, I was called by former Member of Parliament Ashu Marasinghe. I was told “Minister, there is going to be a big problem. Please tell the President immediately to stop this.”
Then I told the President, “Big issue, sir. There is going to be a huge crisis here. Intervene immediately and stop this.” At that moment, there were several ministers present at the scene. The President made a phone call saying “I told you in the morning to stop this. What’s going on?” Then the DIG Tennakoon said, “Sir, at 12.40 pm the IGP told me not to use tear gas or not to use water cannons.” The DIG told the President that the IGP had told him not to stop the attackers by any means.
The President said, “I told you to stop this earlier, I am the President of the country, stop this immediately.” It was only after the President said that and intervened to stop these attackers with tear gas. Only then did it survive this way. The story told by Anura Kumara Dissanayake is true. Two people answered the Human Rights Commission today. The truth is that the IGP and the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Defense were the ones who ordered not to stop this attack and not to stop these idiotic people. After this attack, a large number of people who were going home not involved in this attack were assaulted. That’s unfortunate.”
