KAMALIKA PIERIS

Ten out of the island’s 22 Administrative Districts were battlegrounds, in the 1971 insurgence, said observers. There were attacks on police stations in all 22 districts. JVP attacked with home-made weapons in groups of 25 to 30. JVP believed that controlling these rural police stations would provide them with weapons and also provide them with secure bases for subsequent attacks by the JVP on towns.

 If not for the premature attack in Wellawaya which resulted in the police and military being placed on high alert, the situation would have been very grave. For not only would several police stations have been captured, but the JVP would have been able to arm itself with modern weapons.

When I approached the Wellawaya police station, the area around it was like a battlefield littered with spent shotgun cartridges, empty tins and items of clothing and footwear, recalled Capt FRAB Musafer. The police station had taken a battering; the telephone and power lines were cut. There was no electricity. Police and eyewitnesses said a large group of insurgents, some dressed in blue uniforms, had carried out the attack. It was unbelievable that such an outrageous raid had been conducted against the state. it was certainly a critical moment in Sri Lanka’s history, said Musafer.

The Kegalle, Kurunegala, Galle and Anuradhapura Districts were the worst affected. Kegalle and Galle were the hotbeds with over a thousand full-timers each. This was replicated in the Galle, Matara and Hambantota Districts.

With the exception of Dickwella all Police Stations in the Matara District were abandoned. In the Ambalangoda Police Area all stations, Elpitiya, Uragaha, Pitigala and Meetiyagoda fell to the JVP..Batapola, Deniyaya and Ambalangoda were under the control of the JVP. In areas like Batapola, the JVP had barricaded themselves with trees and lamp-posts.

A major attack occurred at Hanwella, where the A4 High Level and Low Level Roads converge. Early on the morning of the 6th about 100 JVP combatants using hand bombs, Molotov cocktails and firearms attacked the Police Station.  the police fled into the surrounding jungle. The JVP captured the station’s armoury of weapons, hoisted a red flag and stopped transport into Colombo. They held the town until armed police from Homagama, supported by troops from Panagoda overpowered them.

In Kegalle the Pindeniya JVP detachment attacked both the local Police Station and the Bogala Graphite Mines, capturing a lorry load of explosives from the mines. Warakapola Police Station was successfully attacked, its weapons including two sub machine guns seized and the building set ablaze, Police Stations at Bulathkohupitiya, Aranayaka, Mawanella, Rambukkana and Dedigama were also attacked and the station at Aranayake burned down. Only Kegalle police station and the area surrounding it remained under government control.

At Anuradhapura the JVP had established a base camp as well as six sub camps in the surrounding jungle where weapons, explosives and food had been stored. JVP operations in the Rajangana and Tambuttegama areas were controlled from this base camp.

Widespread JVP attacks were launched across the North Central Province, only the Anuradhapura Police Station was spared. The outlying stations had to be abandoned and personnel withdrawn to Anuradhapura. Vavuniya Police Station in the Northern Province was also attacked. The Army was only able to move into the outlying areas of the Anuradhapura District on the 30^th of April.

Less intense activity was reported in the Kandy, Badulla and Moneragala Districts. Badulla where Sunanda Deshapriya was the District Secretary had around 500 JVP members. Despite the lack of weaponry, the full-timers were equipped with blue uniforms, military boots, and haversacks and were supposed to have a shotgun each. 

The Wellawaya group of insurgents had jumped the gun, and this alerted the government .The   insurgency was disrupted. Scattered across the country, knots of youth in their dark blue or black uniforms were in disarray, some attacking police stations but others holding back. Premasiri and his band of youth who were supposed to lay siege to the Gampaha police station which had a large contingent of 100 personnel abandoned their quest and slunk into the night.

At Potuhera the army had arrested a group of JVPers retreating from the Warakapola area. They were retreating to Ritigala jungles on instructions from their high command.They had been taught various ways to survive in the jungle. They had been told what to eat apart from fruits and berries and tender leaves. Even creatures such as lizards and snakes and insects particularly termites and earthworms were recommended.

Sunanda Deshapriya, JVP District Secretary for Badulla was retreating through the Walapane jungles. But after a starvation diet of murunga kola for days, the 150 cadres under his command began deserting.  Ultimately the group dwindled to 12. They had neither food, nor money. Some days they were lucky if they could dynamite fish. Bitten by leeches, they struggled on, until six decided to go back into the city, others on to Knuckles. Two were captured and killed and the remaining four, including Sunanda went back to Welimada. He travelled from there to Batapola, disguised as a mason.

JVP had planned to stage simultaneous attacks on the police stations islandwide under cover of darkness. This was openly conveyed to the authorities via threatening postcards. Police intelligence was also able to crack the JVP codes without much difficulty.

These code messages showed that the first targets would be the police stations. The attacks were to be carried out simultaneously on a particular day at a given time, the information would be sent through coded messages in newspapers. All police stations would come under attack at midnight on of April 5. The plan was to fire with guns at the station, and throw hand bombs and Molotov cocktails so that the policemen would run away or be killed. The attackers were to rush in and seize all the firearms in the stations.  Police were ordered to be on full alert on this day, said Edward Gunawardene.

Edward Gunawardene observed that the least damage was in areas where the police had taken the offensive. Kekirawa police Station, though attacked several times, held out.

At Ampara the ASP in charge A.S. Seneviratne on information received that a busload of armed insurgents were on the way to attack the police station in broad daylight had hurriedly evacuated the station and got men with arms to hide behind trees and bushes having placed a few dummy policemen near the reserve table that was visible as one entered the station. As the busload of insurgents turned into the police station premises a hail of gunfire had been directed at it. About 20 insurgents had been killed and the bus set ablaze.

Talangama Police station that policed Battaramulla was guarded by the people of the area. Even my brothers spent the nights there armed with my father’s shotgun, said Edward. IP Terrence Perera who was later shot dead by the JVP in 1987 was the OIC. The excellent reputation he had in the area made ordinary folk flock to the station and take up positions to defend it if it was attacked.  

There were also those who gave assistance in the form of food and drink for all those who had gone to the aid of the police there. Edward Rupasinghe a prominent businessman of Battaramulla supplied large quantities of bread and short eats from the Westown Bakery which he owned. However as the attacks on police stations and state property became more and more intense, the SP Nugegoda decided to close down the Talangama Police Station and withdraw all the officers to Mirihana.

A police patrol had just returned to Wellawaya and as customary the arms and ammunition were locked up in the strong room by the reserve PC on duty. He had thereafter ventured out to the verandah to have a smoke when the insurgents opened fire killing him. Another policeman was also shot. He died in hospital.

. The body of the reserve police constable was lying at the entrance of the police station. With no access to any firearms, there was very little the police could do .A brave policeman crawled up to the dead constable, and retrieved the keys to the guns. This enabled them to retaliate and return fire.  After a few hours, the attack was repulsed. Musafer said that it was surprising that the insurgents with such overwhelming numbers had not thought to over-run the police station during the lull.

The Police sleeping quarters at Wellawaya were attacked with petrol bombs. During the attack PC Banda had run across to the post office and opened fire from a flank with a .303 rifle. One JVPer was killed.  This turned the tide. The JVP fled. He probably saved the Police that day, said Lalin Fernando.  PC Banda was awarded a bravery medal by the Police.

A memorial at Wellawaya in honour of the two policemen killed in the JVP attack on the Wellawaya police station in 1971.

The plight of the police in these stations has   been ignored by analyst. The fact that the police Department was a legitimate and useful part of the administration was not considered. The police were seen as agents of cruelty and repression. When Parliament finally met, many MPs mainly government MPs, brought in many allegations of abuse against the police. Mrs. Bandaranaike had dismissed them with the following words: “If not for the police, none of you will be here talking ill of them.

The media have focused only on the harassment and torture given to the darling JVP by the brutal police, and none at all on the fact that the police were the JVP targets. There is no sympathy at all for their plight or their natural resentment. They were attacked and killed while on duty in the police station.

The army, following its principles, opposed any attack on JVPers who had been arrested. For instance at Wellawaya when two teen age JVPers were found hiding in a paddy field, a constable aimed a kick at one of them and soldier    swung his rifle at them. The army officer in charge recalled I yelled at him to get out. I warned the Policemen baying for revenge that the ‘captives’ were not to be harmed in anyway”.

At Potuhera the army had arrested a group of JVPers. Boys in their teens dressed in blue shorts and shirts. They had all been badly beaten up. I cautioned the airmen not to beat them further and took them into police custody. They had bleeding wounds which were washed and attended to by several policemen as they were all innocent looking children, said Gunawardene.

 At Wellawaya, the army found a wounded insurgent who they thought was dead. Someone noticed a slight twitch in his body and shouted that he was alive. No sooner this was said, a rifle was raised by a policeman to squash his skull but he was thwarted by one of the soldiers who pushed him off balance. We dispatched the injured man in the Army truck to hospital but he was confirmed dead on arrival, said Musafer.

There was political interference during the insurgency. There is an interesting example of this at Kurunegala.  The Superintendent of Police Kurunegala has been on medical leave and Leo Perera ASP was bravely handling the situation almost single handed said Edward Gunawardene. The morale of the police at Kurunegala was high because Leo Perera had led them admirably.

The Pothuhera police station had been overrun and occupied by insurgents.  Leo Perera ASP Kurunegala had approached the station with a party in mufti unnoticed by the insurgents, taken them by surprise and shot six of them dead. The police station had been reestablished immediately after.

When Gunawardene visited the Potuhera police station, the officers were all full of praise for the exemplary courage shown by ASP Leo Perera in destroying the insurgents and re-establishing the station quickly. One officer even went to the extent of suggesting that a brass plaque be installed mentioning the feat of Leo Perera.

I complimented Leo him for the excellent work done and told him that the high morale of the Kurunegala police was solely due to his leadership. He smiled in acknowledgment. But I noticed that he was not all that happy. He had a worried look on his face, recalled Gunawardene.

In the evening I received a call from the IGP that he would be arriving in Kurunegala at 8 a.m. accompanied by General Attygalle, continued Gunawardene. He told me that they wanted to have a chat with Leo Perera. The undisclosed mission of the two top men was to take Leo back to Colombo with them.

 The IGP had been pressurized by Minister Felix Dias Bandaranaike to transfer the ASP, but the IGP had decided not to displease and discourage a young officer by making him feel that he had been punished. The IGP was more than conscious of the fact that the ASP had done an excellent job in quelling the insurgency in the Kurunegala District continued Gunawardene.

By that time I had come to know that several Kurunegala SLFP lawyers had made some serious complaints against the ASP. having received credible information that some of these lawyers were in league with insurgent leaders, Leo Perera had not only questioned and cautioned them but even got their houses searched. Three of the insurgents shot dead by Leo at Potuhera had been local criminals who had been associating closely with these lawyers.

Leo Perera told the IGP and General Attygalle of the underhand manner in which three lawyers, mentioning their names, who pretended to be great supporters of the government were behaving. He went on to emphasize that he even had proof how they were hand in glove with insurgents and local criminals. The IGP and Attygalle were silent.

Thereafter, a high level team of investigators arrived from Colombo. This team consisted of Kenneth Seneviratne, Director of Public Prosecutions; Francis Pietersz, Director of Establishments and Cyril Herath, Director of Intelligence. They visited several places including the Kurunegala, Potuhera and Mawathagama police stations; and the Rest House which had been the meeting place and ‘watering hole’ of some of the lawyers during the height of the troubles. Many lawyers and several police officers were also questioned. They completed their assignment after about a week and left for Colombo. They had not been able to find evidence of any wrongdoing by ASP Leo Perera. ( https://island.lk/a-senior-cop-remembers-april-1971/)