Wrongful to request list of informants for petty political gains: MR

Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa today said it was absolutely wrong to request a list of intelligence service informants to fulfil petty political gains as it would jeopardise the national security of the country.

Speaking at a public meeting held at the Carlton House in Tangalle, Mr. Rajapaksa said investigations into sensitive issues such as intelligence services should be done in a responsible manner.

“In order to find information, agents need to get into organisations. Any government does that, police do this, informants are being paid. When these organisations are being formed, intelligence services had sent groups to them. They were paid based on the information they give or on a monthly basis. Based on this today, lists of agents are being requested to fulfil petty political gains, sling mud at them and to make allegations,” he said.

He reiterated that the situation prior to and after the Easter Sunday bomb attack was disappointing and said revealing sensitive information about national security in public was unacceptable.

“When names were revealed during the Millennium City incident, the LTTE killed the informants one by one. Personnel of our forces who were in that organisation were also killed. Only one person escaped after leaving the country. These are times we have to be extra careful. Today, we are being told that 99 per cent is fine in terms of the situation in the country. However, one per cent is left. We have our concerns about that one per cent,” he said. (Aneesha Manage)

Video by Anisha Mannage