TNA MP dead following claymore attack

SRI LANKA

TNA Jaffna district MP K. Sivanesan died following a claymore attack targeting his vehicle at Kanagarayakulam in Wanni this afternoon. His driver also died in the attack. He was on his way to Killinochchi at the time of the blast.

SRI LANKA RUPAVAHINI COOPERATION female employee slashed

MEDIA
SRI LANKA RUPAVAHINI COOPERATION female employee slashed

A female employee of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation was slashed on her back with a razor blade by an unidentified man in Peliyagoda, while traveling in a bus after work last evening -- just weeks after Minister Mervin Silva stormed the SLRC premises.

Ranjani Herath, the Assistant Director of the SLRC Library, was on her way home, seated in a Kadawatha bound bus. As it was passing Kelaniya Bridge she had felt a pain in her back. “I had dozed off, and when I turned, a young man in an orange T-Shirt who was seated just behind me was doing something with his hand,” she said.

She added that, as she turned around further, the man had cut her again. “I did not see what sort of weapon he used, but as soon as he cut me he ran and jumped out of the bus,” she said; adding that she had cried out for someone to stop him, yet no one in the bus come to her aid.

Soon afterwards, Herath, the mother of a nine-year-old girl, was rushed to the Colombo National Hospital, where she was given the necessary treatment.

She described her assailant as being about 28 years of age and wearing a white cap pulled down over his face. Police are conducting further investigations into the incident.

Meanwhile, five media organizations condemned the attack, saying that this was the fourth incident in which SLRC employees had been subjected to various ordeals since January 26, when a Senior SLRC Producer was hacked by two unidentified persons. After that the houses of two SLRC employees, Duleep Dushantha and Piyal Ranjith, were broken into by armed gangs who had threatened them.

The media organizations held the government responsible for not taking any action against the intruders, including Mr. Mervin Silva, who had stormed the SLRC premises and created disorder.

Spokesman for the five media organizations, Mr. Sanath Balasuriya, said, “the fact that no police action had been taken against Minister Mervin Silva and his supporters makes us disbelieve that these incidents are the result personal disputes”.