‘Join govt. to destroy virus; don’t join virus to destroy govt.’ Weerasekera tells Opposition

By Saman Indrajith

Public Security Minister Rear Admiral (retd) Sarath Weerasekera told Parliament yesterday that it was the duty of the police to follow instructions given by the health authorities to prevent the spread of the pandemic and so there was nothing wrong with police taking action to disperse public gatherings and rallies.

Responding to questions raised by the SJB, which accused the government of using the police to disrupt the Opposition protests, the minister said that the Opposition should join hands with the government to defeat coronavirus instead of joining hands with the virus to defeat the government.

Weerasekera said that public gatherings had been banned and police took action to prevent rallies and marches and it was only done to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa alleged that buses carrying SJB protesters had been turned back.

The protests in several parts of Colombo were organised by the SJB against the government, and the buses were stopped and prevented from proceeding beyond hurriedly set up police checkpoints, Premadasa said.

Minister Weerasekera said that police had only carried out their duties and functions.

“The police are only assisting the health authorities doing their best to control the pandemic. Instead of protesting, the Opposition should assist the government in fighting the spread of the virus. But what is evident is that they are only helping the virus to destroy the government and the people,” said Minister Weerasekera.

When Premadasa complained that police had visited SJB supporters and warned them not to attend the protests in Colombo, Minister Weerasekera said was the duty of the police to prevent chaos and trouble amongst the public.

The Opposition leader demanded to know from Minister Weerasekera if there would be a terror attack as speculated by some media reports and if so what were the precautionary measures taken to prevent such an attack.

Minister Weerasekera assured that the public safety and security was of utmost priority whether or not there were security threats.