KP should be handed over to India - UNP

by Zacki Jabbar

Photo by Sagala Rathnayeka

(January 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The government should immediately hand over the former LTTE Chief Arms Procurer Kumaran Pathmanathan to India, without hurling baseless allegations against Opposition politicians, UNP leader Ranil Wickremsinghe says.

Addressing a public meeting in Negombo on Thursday evening, Wickremesinghe said that the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime was barking up the wrong tree, while turning a blind eye to the various accusations that have been levelled at KP.

He said that the government, having given KP maximum protection and all the comforts, was unfairly accusing some Opposition politicians, including Gampaha District UNP MP Jayalath Jayawardena, of being "traitors."

It was KP, who acted against the Sri Lankan State and was engaged in anti-national activities. He should be made answerable, Wickremesinghe said.

He said that nearly 20 months after the war had ended, the Rajapaksa regime was still asking the masses to tighten their belts, but people like KP were enjoying life to the hilt.

The UNP’s biggest threat came from those who were trying to divide the party and not the government, he said.

The ruling UPFA can be defeated at the forthcoming local elections, since the people were very bitter over its inability to deliver on economic pledges and also control the spiralling cost of living. A UNP victory now hinges solely on the party’s unity, Wickremesinghe said.