The opposition party held its May Day rally together with the major Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance, which was once considered as a proxy party of the Tamil Tiger terrorists group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). A UNP spokesman said party activists upon observing some people hiding behind UNP leaders trying to hoist the LTTE flag took them into their custody and forwarded them to the UNP chairman Gamini Jayawickrama Perera who had warned them and released. The government has criticized the UNP and opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe's decision to hold the May Day rally with the TNA. Pro-reformist members of the party led by the deputy leader Sajith Premadasa did not participate in the rally in Jaffna. Instead they attended the death anniversary commemoration of former President and Premadasa's father R. Premadasa, who was killed by an LTTE suicide attack on the May Day of 1993, in Colombo. Western Provincial Council minister Udaya Gammanpila speaking to the state-run radio said the true loyalists of the UNP are always against the practice of maintaining ties with the LTTE, which killed the frontline senior leaders of the UNP like Lalith Athulathmudali, Ranasinghe Premadasa and Gamini Dissanayake. Present leader's close relationship with the TNA and the party's decision to hold the May Day rally with them and allowing to display the Tiger flag is a severe insult to the late leaders of the party, Gammanpila said. Gammanpila has even called for taking legal action against the UNP for displaying the flag of a terrorist organization at its May Day Rally.
No comments:
Post a Comment