Death penalty imposed on accused in MP Athukorala murder case

By Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Sarath Wirasekara

Twelve accused in the case of the brutal murder of then Parliamentarian Amarakeerthi Athukorala and his security officer during "Aragalaya" have been sentenced to death. We saw on television how their relatives who were present in the court premises wept after the decision was given.

It is impossible to imagine that any humanist would be happy or joyful when the death penalty is imposed even on his enemy. But it must be mentioned that everyone who knew how this whole incident unfolded was deeply shocked.
On that day, a group of about five thousand people in Nittambuwa town (according to the Nittambuwa police) were behaving in a riotous manner on the road, checking all vehicles coming from Colombo, and checking whether there were government politicians  and dragging them out of the vehicles, brutally attacking them, and then setting the vehicles on fire.

The party members coming in buses were taken out of the buses and attacked, and the buses were set on fire. 
They exchanged messages over the phone of the numbers of the vehicles arriving. Therefore, it appears that this was a well-organised and planned attack.

In such a situation, Mr Athakorala, who arrived there, also met with the same fate. But when he was attacked, his security officer fired from his pistol to scare the mob and ran with the MP and entered a nearby building for protection and climbed to the fourth floor.

When the Nittambuwa Police OIC (unarmed) and his officers tried to prevent the mob from entering the building, he and those officers were also severely beaten by the mob.

We saw on social media that day how hundreds of mobs who entered the building severely beat the MP and the security officer and dragged them down from the fourth floor by their feet. We can imagine what happened to their heads when they were being dragged by their feet four floors down the stairs. 

Later, the public could see how their lifeless bodies, which had been thrown onto the road, were also beaten with clubs.
Mr Athukorala was a quiet, often smiling person in Parliament, who could be called an innocent (by the way he behaved). So why was he, who had done nothing wrong, brutally murdered?  It was only because he was a government MP at the time.

Who gave permission to a mob to attack a government MP and his security officer on the street,  kill them, drag the bodies out into the street, and even attack the dead bodies just because the public disliked the government? Also, who instilled hatred in those killers and motivated them to do so? Were they also not accomplices in this murder?

There is a more serious issue regarding this incident and other attacks such as house burnings, robberies, and vehicle burnings that occurred in that period. What happened to the normal law and order in the country? If the law of the country had been implemented properly, the murder of MP Athukorala and the security officer would not have occurred, and we would not have heard of a death sentence like we heard this week. If so, were not the relevant authorities who did not implement the law of the country properly complicit in this murder?

The order given to the police officers was that they should not carry weapons on duty that day. Was that order legal? No. If any gang is involved in organised house arson, assault, robbery, murder, etc., the orders of the Police Department to fire and suppress/control the same are very clear, and no additional orders are needed. 

But what happened here was that when the law of the country was being seriously violated, that is, when the innocent people were being severely assaulted, murdered, and houses were being set on fire, an order had been given NOT to control the situation. It was very clear from the fact that police had been ordered not to issue any weapons from the armoury when all this happened. It means that it was an illegal and unlawful order.

Similarly, when MP Athukorala was fighting for his life with his bodyguard on the fourth floor of the building, the Nittambuwa Police OIC went to the army officer stationed in the town and pleaded with him to save them. There were about 200 armed soldiers with the officer, but he had stated that he had not received any orders from above to get involved. When there is a massacre taking place, the armed soldiers, led by a commissioned officer, do not need any further  orders to save the lives of those victims. If he had saved those lives, he could have even received a medal of valour. But here too, what happened was that those army officers were given clear orders NOT to get involved, implying that they should just wait and see whilst the thugs were killing the innocents.

Hence it appears that in addition to the accused who were sentenced to death today, there are other people responsible for the Athukorala murder. It is a matter of utmost shame that the police and the army stood by and did nothing whilst the innocent people were being attacked, houses were burnt, and murders were committed. 
Similarly, the law-abiding people of the country condemn with great disgust how the lawyers appeared free of charge on behalf of the thugs who were arrested on the complaints of the victims and when they were released on bail the same day, how they were welcomed with garlands.

Sri Lanka is an independent country. Its law should not be allowed to be manipulated by various forces in different situations.

Therefore, a full and thorough investigation into the Aragalaya and the violence that took place should be conducted again. This is to prevent such an unfortunate incident from happening again. Then at least in the future, people may not kill others whom they have never seen before, out of hatred created by outside forces. Their relatives will not have to cry and wail on the court grounds for them.

(Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Sarath Wirasekara is a former Minister of Public Security)