Lanka police questions more ruling party MPs over violence
Colombo(PTI): Sri Lankan police on Thursday questioned three more members of the ruling SLPP parliamentary group over the violent clashes between anti- and pro-government protesters in the country that killed at least 10 people and injured over 200 others.
On May 9, violence erupted in Sri Lanka after supporters of former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa attacked peaceful anti-government protesters demanding his ouster over the country's worst economic crisis that led to acute shortages of staple food, fuel and power.
Nihal Thalduwa, the police spokesman, said three former ministers were quizzed on Thursday in Parliament by a group of police's CID investigators.
Two of their colleagues who were arrested previously have been remanded till May 25.
Thalduwa said 1,059 people have been arrested for attacks on the protesters and for the violence unleashed against the ruling parliamentarians where some 78 government parliamentarians had suffered arson attacks on property.
Thalduwa said the death toll from violence had risen to 10 with the death of a person admitted to hospital with serious head injuries dying on Thursday.
Politicians were charged with encouraging them to attack the protesters. At least two of them, a former state minister and another MP, who had been identified in video footage as instigators of violence were arrested and remanded.
The government parliamentarians blamed police inaction as the cause of arson attacks against their private properties.
They charged the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) with instigating violence which was vehemently denied by the Marxist party.
The mob destroyed several tents and other structures erected at Galle Face and also attacked some of the demonstrators. The violence saw arson attacks on the homes of several politicians, including the ancestral home of the Rajapaksas in Hambantota.
Video footage showed the entire house of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his younger brother and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Medamulana in Hambantota city was burning.
Former Prime Minister Mahinda's House in Kurunegala was also set on fire by protesters while a mob also destroyed D A Rajapaksa Memorial constructed in the memory of the father of Mahinda and Gotabaya in Medamulana, Hambantota.
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People wrongly accuse me of appeasement; I am secular in true sense: Mamata
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday rejected allegations of indulging in appeasement, asserting that she is "secular in the true sense" and participates in programmes across faiths without discrimination.
She was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of ‘Durga Angan’, a cultural complex dedicated to Goddess Durga, at New Town in Kolkata.
“People accuse me of indulging in appeasement, but it is not correct. I am secular in the true sense,” she said, adding that she attends programmes of all religions.
The Trinamool Congress chief did not identify the accuser, but the opposition BJP often charges her with appeasing the Muslims.
“You do not say anything when I visit a gurdwara, but start criticising me when I attend an Eid programme,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee also flagged concerns over the ongoing SIR process, alleging harassment of people and loss of lives.
“People are being harassed unnecessarily. Over 50 lives have been lost within a month during the SIR process,” she claimed.
“We will continue fighting to protect the democratic rights of people and are ready to lay down our lives for that,” Banerjee said.
