JVP to meet IGP over MP Arundika’s allegations

The JVP is planning to meet the IGP on a statement by SLPP MP Arundika Fernando saying that 150 of some 400 persons taken into police custody for alleged involvement in backlash violence after SLPP goons attacked the Gotagogama protesters in Galle Face on May 9.

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said Fernando is on record making a statement quoting the IGP that among those arrested for violent incidents were JVP members.

“We want the IGP to clarify who the others in the custody are if he has ascertained the political party memberships of 150 out of some 400 arrested. We hope that the IGP could explain to us the method he used to affix the party membership label on them. The IGP should give us the list of names of those in their custody.

“Government ministers are trying to apportion the blame for the violence on the JVP. There is a reason for that. None of those ministers can go out in public. They have to live in hiding. They are hiding from the people.

“Though they have ministerial positions they cannot go on the streets. They are afraid of people in gas, fuel and milk powder queues. They have shifted from luxury SUVs to small cars because of peoples’ anger. This public wrath is because people have understood the oppression that they had been forced to live with under these rulers.

“This is not a protest by a single political party. The ruling party politicians know that they cannot go out while our MPs still walk on the streets with the people.

“Police has been ordered to make arrests on the basis of lists given to them. These lists have not been prepared by the police or the CID. They have been made by provincial politicians of the SLPP. They have included the names of JVP regional leaders in their lists. We are consulting our lawyers to question this arbitrary manner of making arrests,” Silva said.

He said that his party has evolved facing similar situations in the past and is closely observing the next move in the government’s political witch-hunt.

“In 1983, there was a similar situation. The then government officially attributed the responsibility of triggering the Pogrom against Tamils in the South on us. In very recent history, they unsuccessfully tried to put the blame of Easter Sunday incidents on us.

“Now after two, three years, people know the truth about who carried out the Easter Sunday terror attacks. After the protests in Mirihana opposite President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s home, Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said that JVP members set a bus on fire there. He’s still unable to prove his allegation.”