Sri Lanka rejects media reports on Lankan President Sirisena’s assassination plot by R&AW
On Wednesday, October 17, the Health Minister of Sri Lanka and Cabinet spokesperson, Rajitha Senaratne rejected the media reports that President Maithripala Sirisena accused Indian Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) of plotting his assassination.
Senaratne said in a statement, “The president, as the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers, has paid attention to the printed and electronic media reports on the matters discussed during the Cabinet meeting at the Presidential on 16th October 2018. It is stressed that those news are completely untrue”.
Lanka government rejects reports on President Sirisena’s assassination plot by India’s R&AW#SriLanka #MaithripalaSirisena #ColomboPorthttps://t.co/53K6MBCNRr pic.twitter.com/FADtWTLw02
— ET Defence (@ETDefence) October 17, 2018
He also declined the reports that Sri Lanka has refused to award the infrastructure development project to government of India saying that this issue was not included in the cabinet meeting agenda.
He said, “Any Cabinet paper relating to the infrastructure development projects planned to be implemented in Sri Lanka by the Indian government or Indian companies were not included in the agenda of that Cabinet meeting”.
On Tuesday, economynext.com reported quoting a ministerial source after heated cabinet meeting that President Sirisena accused the coalition partner, the United National Party (UNP), for not taking seriously an alleged conspiracy to kill him and former secretary to the ministry of defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksha.
The ministerial source was quoted as saying, “I think it was uncalled for (to accuse India) because he did not provide any evidence to support his claim”.
The reports came just before the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghr’s visit to India for talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the work progress on India backed projects, including the East Terminal project.
