The Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, Attorney-at-Law
Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara disputed the Minister’s claim that no information remained about events 36 years earlier, citing details of the 8 February 1989 attack on guard posts at the Temple of the Tooth, the seizure of firearms, and arrests of named individuals. He also referred to disruption of the Kumbal Perahera and alleged threats to the Diyawadana Nilame. He requested the Minister of Public Security to conduct an inquiry and table the available records in Parliament.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, the Minister said there is no information after 36 years. I have details: On 08.02.1989, after attacking multiple guard posts of the Temple of the Tooth, 17 firearms were seized, including nine SLR (1-81) rifles and two T-56 rifles. Persons including Sudalikarage Padma Chandani of Nissana Rangalawa were arrested, as were Gangaa, Mangalika, Nadika, Lilanthi and Weerasinghe of Matale. A monk named Thibbatuwawe Gnanarathana had a kirichchiya (dagger) held to the Diyawadana Nilame’s neck. The Kumbal Perahera could not be held; the Diyawadana Nilame carried the casket by hand. As a former police officer and the current Minister of Public Security, I request that you inquire and table the available information in this House, as these records do exist.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 23 July 2025 ·No. 1754386160089643 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/4047
Cite as: The Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, Attorney-at-Law. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 July 2025. No. 1754386160089643. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/4047