{"id":83894,"date":"2018-12-04T20:57:38","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T02:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=83894"},"modified":"2018-12-04T13:41:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T20:41:41","slug":"vavunativu-killings-rehabilitated-tigers-to-be-prosecuted-under-pta-gen-ratnayake-urges-govt-to-take-remedial-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/12\/04\/vavunativu-killings-rehabilitated-tigers-to-be-prosecuted-under-pta-gen-ratnayake-urges-govt-to-take-remedial-measures\/","title":{"rendered":"Vavunativu killings: \u2018Rehabilitated\u2019 Tigers to be prosecuted under PTA Gen. Ratnayake urges govt. to take remedial measures"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

December 4, 2018, 11:38 pm<\/span>
\nThe rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadres, arrested in connection with last Friday\u2019s killing of two police constables at Vavunativu, Batticaloa, would be charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a senior police officer said yesterday.<\/p>\n

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), investigating the incident, would have to use the PTA to prosecute the suspects though there was a government decision to repeal the law, the officer said.<\/p>\n

The previous government agreed to annul the PTA following talks with the UN, the EU and the TNA.<\/p>\n

A senior security officer told The Island that so far three hardcore LTTE cadres, including one from the North, had been arrested and further investigations were continuing.<\/p>\n

According to him, all three had undergone rehabilitation conducted by the military.<\/p>\n

Since the previous government brought the war to a successful conclusion in May 2009, a section of the international community had been demanding that the PTA be replaced with new law compatible with international norms.<\/p>\n

Peacetime Army Chief and first Commissioner General of Rehabilitation General Daya Ratnayake yesterday told The Island that the alleged involvement of rehabilitated LTTE cadres in Vavnativu killings shouldn\u2019t be made a political issue under any circumstances.<\/p>\n

Ratnayake said those in authority at different levels should examine the circumstances leading to some rehabilitated cadres taking up weapons nearly a decade after the end of the conflict. Asserting that Vavnativu incident was likely to be an isolated one, Ratnayake said that a re-assessment of the rehabilitated lot should be undertaken immediately.<\/p>\n

The former Army Chief noted nearly 12,000 rehabilitated LTTE cadres had been integrated into society over the years. Responding to a query, Ratnayake, the chief architect of the internationally accepted rehabilitation project said that Sri Lanka could be really proud of its effort.<\/p>\n

Ratnayake warned of dire consequences unless tangible measures were taken to bring simmering political and constitutional turmoil to an early end. Pointing out that there were LTTE cadres who hadn\u2019t been rehabilitated, Ratnayake said that continuing uncertainty could influence not only ex-Tigers but various other interested parties as well.<\/p>\n

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva declined to comment on the Vavnativu killings when the issue was raised at a recent media briefing.<\/p>\n

MP Dullas Alahapperuma, addressing the media, compared the recent attack with that of July 2001 commando-style LTTE raid on the Bandaranaike International Airport and the adjoining Katunayake air base. He said the government wouldn\u2019t give in to terrorism or succumb to pressure under any circumstances.<\/p>\n

The police said that in addition to those so far taken into custody there were likely to be more arrests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island December 4, 2018, 11:38 pm The rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadres, arrested in connection with last Friday\u2019s killing of two police constables at Vavunativu, Batticaloa, would be charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a senior police officer said yesterday. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), investigating the incident, would have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83894","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=83894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}