Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had a narrow escape from a violent mob on the Galle Road at Balapitiya. His motorcade was stopped by a group of unruly protesters near the Ven. Megetuwatte Gunananda Thera’s statue and someone even tried to open the rear door of his vehicle, but the police dispersed the crowd, according to the UNP.
Wickremesinghe accompanied by Party General Secretary, Tissa Attanayake, MP Wijedasa Rajapakshe and several others had visited funeral houses of fishermen killed by the cyclonic storm. While the UNP leader’s motorcade was returning around 5. 00 p.m. the road had been blocked by a group of thugs, the UNP said.
The vehicle in which Wickremesinghe travelled and the vehicle of UNP Avissawella organiser Upul Weerasinghe sustained some damage.
Rajapakshe, who was an eyewitness to the wild scene, said: “All those fishermen had died due to failure on the part of the government to alert them of the impending storm. Having failed to prevent a disaster the government thugs are now attacking us.”
Wickremesinghe and others had visited the injured fishermen receiving treatment at the Balapitiya hospital, a UNP spokesman said. After Wickremesinghe had safely left the area, two UNP Balapitiya Pradeshiya Sabha members who organised the Party leader’s visit, Asela de Zoysa and M. D. Senarath, lodged a complaint with the Ahungalle police that they had been assaulted by UPFA supporters near the Ven. Gunananda’s statue and got themselves admitted to the Balapitiya hospital
Police Media spokesman’s office, quoting the Ambalangoda police, under whose purview the area comes, said there had been an incident where the traffic was blocked by an unruly crowd but no complaints had been lodged by anyone.
Chairman of the Balapitiya Pradeshiya Sabha, A. Dayaratne de Silva, who earlier prevented Wickremesinghe and the entourage from visiting two fishermen’s funeral houses, at Megetuwatte, by protesting with about 400 fishermen, said that they had not assaulted anyone and it was only a case of fishermen protesting against the Opposition Leader undertaking an unwarranted visit.
He said he and a group of people attended to all the needs since 4. 00 a.m. on the day the fishermen were killed. “Parliamentarian Sajin Vaas Gunawardena met all the expenses. What was now left to be done was to replace the lost boats and look after the families of dead fishermen. In such a situation there was no need for the Opposition Leader or anyone else to come there. People were against such attempts at making political capital and we will not allow it.”
But a group of young men protested against the way the PS Chairman and others had behaved to prevent Wickremesinghe from paying his respects to the dead and said it was his democratic right. (by Shamindra Ferdinando and Dasun Edirisinghe)
Source: The Islands (Sri Lanka)
