Rajitha tells ‘Salakuna’ he gave blessings to ‘Pra’

Jan 12, 2016

Health minister Rajitha Senaratne says he had given his blessings to the murderous paramilitary group ‘Pra’ that had operated during the 1988-89 terror period. He said so during Hiru channel’s ‘Salakuna’ programme yesterday (11).

Terrorism should be countered by terrorism, he said, but continued to avoid answering the question as to how he had blessed ‘Pra.’

He replied ‘no’ to the question as to whether he gave leadership to ‘Pra’, but he managed to dodge the question as to whether he had given lists of names to the group.

At the time, the highest number of deaths of youths was reported from Matale, where Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was the district’s Army officer in charge, and Rajitha said he saw nothing wrong in that.

He said he did not coordinate ‘Pra’ activities for Kalutara district, claiming that he had not gone to station there by that time.

However, none of the moderators of the programme asked him as to who was the doctor who had received Rs. 50,000 per head of each young rebel killed during the terror period.

During a later time, ‘Silumina’ had carried a front page headline story claiming that a doctor of ‘Pra’ had received payments of Rs. 50,000 from the then government.