British tour for Maj. Pathirana for setting fire to ‘Udayan’ office

 Monday, 02 December 2013 

The Defence Ministry has taken action to send Jaffna commanding officer of Gajaba Regiment Major Pathirana and Gajaweera and Munniragedara of the Special Forces Regiment on a tour of Britain ‘in recognition of their services.’ Maj. Pathirana has become qualified for this Christmas prize for his having set fire twice to the Udayan newspaper office in Jaffna on the orders of Jaffna commander Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe. In addition, Maj. Pathirana and the two officers have been thus rewarded for having sabotaged electioneering in the north.

Their other act which has come in for praise by the Defence Ministry is their having turned north chief minister C.V. Vigneswaran back from visiting a Tamil school and a kovil being dismantled by the Army recently.

In recognition of all these, the Defence Ministry is due to send the three officers to Britain on December 15, purportedly on a special project. The External Affairs Ministry presently has the passports of the trio and it had liaised with the British High Commission and obtained visa for them. Without knowing the circumstances, the high commission has issued the visas.