Excerpted from the memoirs of Senior DIG (Retd.) Edward Gunawardene
Barely a week had passed after the election ended I was in for a surprise. I received a message from the IGP that I had been appointed as the ASP in charge of the security of the Hon. Prime Minister and His Excellency the Governor-General. As expected Dudley Senanayake had been appointed the Prime Minister and he was in the process of forming the Cabinet. William Gopallawa was the Governor-General. He had taken over from Oliver Goonatilleke after the attempted coup of 1962.
The VIP Security Division fell within the purview of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police. I was not given any indication as to where I was to take up residence. As the only official police bungalows were the large ‘C’ type houses on Brownrigg Road (now Keppetipola Mawatha) I knew that as a bachelor I had no chance of getting one of these. Furthermore all these were occupied mainly by the DIGs and SPs.
Dealing with Islamist madrasas: To mainstream or to ban them altogether?
Sri Lanka Guardian
January 01, 2021
Children and youth are the most precious wealth just as much as the most productive resource of a country. They are the most creative, and the most forward looking section of any community.
by Rohana R. Wasala
According to a news item carried in The Island/December 28, 2020, Russian Ambassador in Colombo Yuri Materiy forewarned Sri Lanka’s Minister of Public Security Retired Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera that extremist Islamic terrorist organizations may channel funds to their Lankan counterparts on the pretext of extending COVID-19 aid. ‘In response the Minister said that after the war a new strategy had been formulated by the then Sri Lankan government to increase the intelligence battalions from 3-7 and deported nearly 160 madrasa scholar leaders who under the guise of religious studies were spreading hate and extremist propaganda’. He also told the Russian
Posted on December 29th, 2020
By Rohana R. Wasala
According
to a news item carried in The Island/December 28, 2020, Russian Ambassador in
Colombo Yuri Materiy forewarned Sri Lanka’s Minister of Public Security Retired
Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera that extremist Islamic terrorist organizations
may channel funds to their Lankan counterparts on the pretext of extending
COVID-19 aid. ‘In response the Minister said that after the war a new strategy
had been formulated by the then Sri Lankan government to increase the
intelligence battalions from 3-7 and deported nearly 160 madrasa scholar
leaders who under the guise of religious studies were spreading hate and
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
Charles Percival de Silva known as CP de Silva or CP was a mercurial personality who strode across the Sri Lankan -known then as Ceylon- political scene like a colossus. He passed away on October 9th 1972. CP de Silva was a former Civil servant and cabinet minister who was worshipped by thousands of farmers as a living Deity for the services he rendeted in the sectors of land settlement, irrigation and agriculture. CP’s crowning achievement however was in voting against his own party led Govt and bringing it down. His was a principled act necessitated by the ideal of resisting what he perceived as being the SLFP Govt’s “unadulterated totalitarianism” at that time. The contours of the CP de Silva saga is a fascinating tale worthy of being related on the occasion of his impending death anniversary on Oct 9.