The Island
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, last week said “Those who have taken to politics today, are minting money and they maintain bank accounts not only in almost all the local banks but also overseas.
When they first embarked on their political career, they didn’t have enough money to buy a set of tyres for their vehicles, but today they own fleets of limousines and live in palaces, he said.
Wickremesinghe was addressing a public meeting following a religious ceremony at the Mihintale Raja Maha Viharaya to mark the death anniversaries of Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera and 35 others who were killed in a bomb explosion in Anuradhapura last year.
“Although General Janaka Perera, a man who fought against injustice and corrupt politics, is not among the living, we could follow the example set by him,” he said.
One year has passed since he was killed, but the ruling party has failed to trace who was behind the heinous killing, Wickremesinghe said. It is the responsibility of the Government to nab the culprits, he insisted.
“Government is of the opinion that the LTTE is behind the killing and if it is so, it is very easy for the government to trace the killers since the LTTE has been decimated,” he said
He asked why the team of police officers appointed to investigate the killing have been removed and a new team appointed.
The Judiciary is helpless today and investigations have been swept under the carpet, he said.
Government should take the blame for killing of Janaka Perera since it failed to provide the necessary security to him even after being informed that there were death threats on him, he said.
Ranil asked why a war hero of Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera’s standing who should have been provided with adequate security was ignored, was it to make him a sitting duck for the LTTE.