21.4.2008
Army Spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara
Army Spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara blamed the LTTE for
the murder of Rev Fr Karunaratnam, a Catholic priest and
Chairperson of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights
(NESOHR), in a claymore attack, on the Mallavi– avunikkulam
Road, in Killinochchi.
Brig.
Nanayakkara speaking to news.lk today (21) stated that
the murder has occurred in an uncleared area which is
30 km ahead of the battle fronts and in LTTE-controlled
territory and rejected allegations by the LTTE that the
deep penetration units of the Sri Lanka Army were responsible
for the murder since the Army does not send cadres to
the area where the murder took place.
He
further stated that the security intelligence revealed
that the murdered Father Karunaratnam was suspected to
have been an LTTE sympathizer and opined that it was a
deliberate and even predictable move by the LTTE to bring
the security forces into disrepute and win international
sympathy for their murderous cause.
It
has been revealed that the murdered priest was working
as the chief for the LTTE Peace Secretariat and he was
well known as 'Father Keeli'.
Further,
the intelligence units have revealed that at the time
of his murder he was travelling with the former second-in-command
of the sea tigers, a person referred to as Yogan, who
was working as a director of the LTTE English unit, following
the injuries he sustained during his tenure as a chief
in the LTTE's sea tiger unit.
This
is not the first time that the LTTE, which considered
anyone as dispensable except Tiger leader Prabhakaran,
has targeted a known or suspected Tiger sympathizer, having
murdered several political and other civil society leaders
just to discredit the Sri Lankan security forces, political
analysts point out.
Courtesy
- Government Information