{"id":82028,"date":"2018-10-17T20:53:08","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T02:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=82028"},"modified":"2018-10-16T15:15:37","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T22:15:37","slug":"lankan-president-told-cabinet-indian-intelligence-agency-raw-was-trying-to-kill-him-says-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/10\/17\/lankan-president-told-cabinet-indian-intelligence-agency-raw-was-trying-to-kill-him-says-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Lankan President told cabinet Indian intelligence agency RAW was trying to kill him, says report"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan\/The Hindu<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

Colombo, October 16: In a move that might seriously impair Indo-Lanka relations, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday accused India\u2019s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of plotting his assassination.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sirisena, who was speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting, told Ministers that the Indian intelligence agency was trying to kill\u201d him, but that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not be aware of the plan,\u201d\u00a0The Hindu\u00a0<\/em>has learnt from sources present at the discussion.<\/p>\n

\"Lankan<\/div>\n

We were just shocked when he said it,\u201d a source said, requesting anonymity.<\/p>\n

When contacted for verification, a senior officer at the President\u2019s media unit said: We will verify this and revert.\u201d However, there has been no response till the time of going to print.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Ranil\u2019s Visit<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Sirisena\u2019s claim comes days before Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe\u2019s scheduled visit to New Delhi, where he will meet Mr. Modi to discuss bilateral matters, including key, India-assisted projects on the island.<\/p>\n

However, this is not the first time a Sri Lankan leader has accused the Indian agency of interference. Following his poll defeat in 2015, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa held RAW among those responsible for the change in regime. Mr. Sirisena\u2019s allegation, sources at the meeting said, came when he raised concerns over the government\u2019s indifference\u201d to an assassination plot targeting him. Reports of the said plot emerged last month when an individual named Namal Kumara, part of an anti-corruption outfit, claimed he was aware of a plan to assassinate Mr. Sirisena and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

The CID interrogated Mr. Kumara. The police subsequently also arrested an Indian national late in September. Local media reported that the Indian, identified as M. Thomas hailing from Kerala, claimed he knew of the plot.<\/p>\n

However, the Sri Lankan government issued an elaborate denial to the report and clarifications came from the highest level. Media Minister, Mangala Samaraweera slammed it as a disinformation campaign\u201d, urging reporters to be responsible.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s meeting, Mr. Sirisena reportedly said the Indian national must be a RAW agent trying to kill me. The Indian PM may not be aware. That is often the case. Trump may not be aware of CIA\u2019s similar moves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hindu<\/em>, on Tuesday evening, spoke to multiple sources in government \u2014 across political parties \u2014 who attended the meeting, and they confirmed this.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting also saw a heated argument between President Sirisena and Mr. Wickremesinghe, when a cabinet paper on developing the Colombo Port came up for discussion. Sources said Mr. Sirisena vehemently objected to any Indian involvement in upgrading its east container terminal \u2013 a project that New Delhi has been keen to take up.<\/p>\n

(The featured image at the top shows President Maithripala Sirisena)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan\/The Hindu Colombo, October 16: In a move that might seriously impair Indo-Lanka relations, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday accused India\u2019s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of plotting his assassination. Mr. Sirisena, who was speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting, told Ministers that the Indian intelligence agency was trying to kill\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82028","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=82028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}