COLOMBO – Former President Maithripala Sirisena has said he is the victim of ultra-right-wing forces as much as the late slain prime minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike.
“Bandaranaike was asked to lead the country and after three and half years he was shot dead,” Sirisena told a ceremony commemorating Bandananaike on Friday (25).
“Even though the ultra-right-wing forces in my government did not shoot me to kill, they killed me by taking away my political power,” he said
Sirisena was speaking at the event held to commemorate the 61st death anniversary of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in the morning.
Bandaranaike was shot dead at close range by a Buddhist Monk Talduwe Somarama Thera on the verandah of his private residence, Tintagel, at Rosmead Place in Colombo 7 on September 25, 1959.
Sirisena now heads the political party that Bandaranaike created in the late 1950s, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
He claimed that during his 5-year period since 2015, he was able to bring a left progressive ideology to the country.
Meanwhile, Former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundera testifying at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing Easter Attacks, said Thursday (24) that Sirisena should be held responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks.
Jayasundera, who has made this allegation on previous occasions as well, repeated his claim that Sirisena had offered him an ambassadorial post if he took responsibility for the attacks that killed 261 people, and resigned as Police Chief.
-economynext.com