{"id":55000,"date":"2016-05-25T16:05:35","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T23:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=55000"},"modified":"2016-05-25T16:05:50","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T23:05:50","slug":"navy-report-submitted-to-president-defence-secy-ep-cm-abusing-uniformed-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/05\/25\/navy-report-submitted-to-president-defence-secy-ep-cm-abusing-uniformed-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy report submitted to President \u2013 Defence secy EP CM abusing uniformed officer"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi has sought advice from President Maithripala Sirisena in respect of Eastern Province Chief Minister Z. A. Nazeer, who had been accused of humiliating Captain I.R. Premaratne, the senior officer-in-charge of Sampoor base \u2018Vidura\u2019 in public on May 20 at the opening of a science\u00a0lab and\u00a0computer\u00a0unit at Sampoor Maha Vidyalaya.<\/p>\n

Nazeer represents the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), a constituent of the UNP-led ruling coalition.<\/p>\n

Defence Secretary Hettiarachchi yesterday told\u00a0The Island<\/i>\u00a0that, having studied a report that dealt with the incident from Navy Headquarters, he had submitted it to President\u00a0 Maithripala Sirisena. Asked whether he had received a complaint from Navy Headquarters, Defence Secretary Hettiarachchi said that he had accepted a report, which was immediately forwarded to President Maithripala Sirisena.<\/p>\n

Governor of the Eastern Province Austin Fernando, who was the Chief Guest at the Sampoor event, declined to comment on the incident. Chief Minister Nazeer also rebuked Fernando for not being aware of protocol regarding guests to be invited to the stage.<\/p>\n

Captain Premaratne is the senior officer in charge of Trincomalee South.<\/p>\n

A high ranking Navy official told\u00a0The Island<\/i>\u00a0that Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne had submitted the report yesterday. Earlier, Navy headquarters interviewed Captain Premaratne.<\/p>\n

SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem told The Island<\/i> that he had received a call from Defence Secretary Hettiarachchi on the issue. Minister Hakeem said: “I also inquired from CM Nazeer and he is sincerely sorry about the incident.”<\/p>\n

Minister Hakeem said that CM Nazeer regretted the use of harsh words on a navy officer. Responding to a query, the SLMC leader alleged that some interested parties had been trying to exploit the incident to cause a rift between the SLMC and the security forces. Minister Hakeem said that the issue could be sorted out soon.<\/p>\n

CM Nazeer lashed out at Captain Premaratne, alleging that he was denied due recognition at the event. CM Nazeer also pounced on Governor Fernando, when the latter tried to calm him, An irate CM declared that he respected the US Ambassador\u00a0Atul\u00a0Keshap, who had been on stage next to the Governor much more than those present there.<\/p>\n

Trincomalee-based sources told\u00a0The Island<\/i>\u00a0that CM Nazeer had been furious as he hadn\u2019t been invited onto the stage along with Governor Fernando and US Ambassador Keshap. In fact, Governor Fernando had invited CM Nazeer after seeing that he was inadvertently left out by the compere, sources said.<\/p>\n

Sources said that Ambassador Keshap had been embarrassed as CM Nazeer rebuked Captain Premaratne and Governor. Ambassador Keshap had been there on the invitation of Governor Fernando.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi has sought advice from President Maithripala Sirisena in respect of Eastern Province Chief Minister Z. A. Nazeer, who had been accused of humiliating Captain I.R. Premaratne, the senior officer-in-charge of Sampoor base \u2018Vidura\u2019 in public on May 20 at the opening of a science\u00a0lab and\u00a0computer\u00a0unit at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}