‘Arrest of Jaffna Mayor is to cover-up pressing issues’

• SJB MP Imtiaz Bakir Markar told a press conference on Saturday that the  government was trying to suppress the media by bringing in new laws to  curtail the free media

By Yohan Perera   

The arrest of Jaffna Mayor is an attempt to cover up a host of other issues, Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa said.   

 Making a special statement over the weekend Mr. Premadasa said the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils should have conducted a probe on the Jaffna Mayor instead of arresting him for forming a special unit to man traffic in the Northern Town. “ There are ways and means to conduct a probe on the Jaffna Mayor in the ministerial level while there are other institutions which can probe the special uniforms given to the group which is controlling traffic in Jaffna,” Mr. Premadasa said.   

“The uniforms given by other Municipal Councils for officers carrying out various tasks should also be probed together with the probe on the Jaffna Municipal Council,” he added.   

“ The government is also attempting to cover up important issues through the incident of the Mayor of Jaffna. People are eagerly awaiting to find out the real mastermind behind the Easter Sunday attacks. However, the Government is trying to hoodwink the people by bringing out a false story with regard to mastermind behind the Easter Sunday attack,” he said.    Meanwhile SJB MP Imtiaz Bakir Markar told a press conference on Saturday that the government was trying to suppress the media by bringing in new laws to curtail the free media. “ It was I, during my tenure as the minister of media made arrangements to introduce Right to Information Laws. However this government seems to be trying to things the other way round,” he said.

• However, the Government is trying to hoodwink the people by bringing out a false story with regard to mastermind behind the Easter Sunday attack