‘2006 attack on Gotabaya was an inside job’

Sarath Fonseka-Gotabaya Rajapaksa

COLOMBO, May 4, 2016

Sri Lanka’s former army chief told Parliament on Tuesday that a bomb blast apparently targeting former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother 10 years ago was an “inside job” to win sympathy for the then-ruling family.

Sarath Fonseka, now a government legislator, said the December 2006 bomb attack blamed on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels had been stage-managed by the President’s brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, then-then Defence Secretary.

“No terrorist will set off a suicide bomb 25 meters away from the intended target,” Mr. Fonseka told Parliament during a debate on scaling down military security granted to the former strongman leader.

The government has said it is removing troops in Mr. Rajapaksa’s bodyguard and replacing them with police commandos as part of a policy of relieving the military from civilian security duties.

Gotabaya escaped the 2006 bombing in Colombo unhurt but it killed two members of his military convoy. — AFP