Army denies attack on journalist in Mullaithivu; claims incident was staged

Sri Lanka Army refuted media reports that alleged security personnel deployed in a checkpoint assaulted a journalist when he tried to film the name board of ‘Mullivaikaal’ ahead of commemorative events held on last Saturday. 

Issuing a statement in this regard, Army said that various Social Media platforms, largely with vested interests, along with some print Media in the country published unverified, exaggerated and factually incorrect accounts of the incident.

As the soldier began reaching the said journalist, Army claimed that he had begun withdrawing backwards while filming, but “suddenly struck against his own motorbike that had remained parked a few meters away from the name board and fell over the same place where a barbed-wire fence of a land also stood by the side of a muddy spot and found his hands ‘bruised’.”

On prima facie evidence, the Police took the three soldiers on duty at the location into custody and bailed them afterwards pending further investigations. They were released on police bail. 

In the meantime, the Medico-Legal Examination Report of the Mullaittivu District Hospital, issued on Sunday (28), hours before the hospital discharge of the said journalist, confirmed that he had been treated only for ‘abrasion’ and ‘contusion’, according to the statement issued by the Army.