-Shocking Reveal By A.S. Dasanayake
(Lanka-e-News -12.Aug.2024, 10.00 pm) Mr. Lakshaman Kadirgamar who was the foreign minister during the rule of former president Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranayake, was assassinated at night on the 12th of August 2005. It was on a day like today. While he was at the swimming pool at his house, he was shot dead by an unknown gunman.
The Crime Investigation Department of Sri Lanka started investigating the case in the aspect that Mr. Kadirgamar was shot by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) snipers. During the initial investigation, it was declared that from the gunfire, Mr. Kadirgamar had 4 bullets in total, of which there were 2 bullets in his head, 1 bullet in his neck, and 1 in his chest.
The swimming pool in which Mr. Kadirgamar was shot dead was in his private residence located at No.36 Bullers Lane, Colombo 7. Since there were 4 bullets found in the body of Mr. Kadirgamar, the investigating team mentioned that 2 gunmen would have done the assassination. The investigating team identified that Mr. Kadirgamar was shot through a window on the second floor of a two-story house no. 42 which was his closest neighbour.
There are various unrevealed secrets in the assassination of the former foreign minister. The house bearing number 42, was located 30 meters away from Mr. Kadirgamar’s neighbourhood where the killers were said to have stayed. There were no investigations done just after the death of the foreign minister for two and a half hours. Mr. Kadirgamar was shot on August 12th between 10.00 to 10.30 at night and two and a half hours later, around 1.00 am next day Special Task Force Superintendent of Police Mr. Ajith Wickramasekera who was the first senior Police officer to visit the crime scene. He informed the owner of house number 42, Mr. Lakshman Thalayasingam about the incident and inspected his house. But the investigators were never able to arrest the killers. It is very suspicious that the investigators waited to check the house till 1.00 am
After the murder, the Police said they discovered a sniper rifle tripod with some empty cartridges, food remains, and plastic bags that were used to dispose of stools and urine that were said to have been left upstairs at No. 42, Buller’s Lane.
If Mr. Kadirgamar was shot by an LTTE sniper who was on the top floor of house no. 42, it is very easy for such a sniper to kill him with one shot to his head (one shot - one kill). These special snipers are highly skilled at accurately shooting their target with one shot, even from a distance of 500 to 700 meters. Therefore, no sniper needs to shoot three more bullets at his target from a distance of around thirty meters.
The guns used by snipers in any military in the world are high-powered heavy weapons. Its projectiles are very powerful, and, such a bullet can destroy a head even from a distance of about 500 meters. So, the body of a person who was a victim of four sniper attacks from a distance of around 30 meters can be severely destroyed.
At the time of Mr. Kadirgamar’s murder, the guns used by snipers everywhere in the world only put one bullet into their weapon at a time. And often shoot one shot at a time to hit their target. After one shot at their target, they need a few seconds to load another bullet to shoot at another target.
According to initial reports Mr. Kadirgamar was hit twice on the head by so-called snipers. And it would be a miracle if a person who was shot twice by a sniper on the head was able to stand until he got another two more shots on his neck and chest.
Mr. Kadirgamar’s funeral was held with state honours. No one who paid his last respects could believe that his body, especially the head, was the victim of a sniper attack as it was very normal. If he could have been a victim of a real sniper attack, especially his head could have been severely destroyed. And any undertaker could not make it as it was.
At the time of his assassination, President Chandrika was first and Mr. Kadirgamar was second in the kill list of the LTTE. They were informed about this by the State intelligence and therefore, they were given top security for that. But apart from Mr. Kadirgamar’s official residence, he also frequently visited his private residence. However, there were serious problems regarding his private residence security.
Mr. Kadirgamar’s security was provided by the special elite unit of the Sri Lanka Army Commando force and a unit of a Ministerial Security Division (MSD) of Sri Lanka Police. Preventing all possible threats to the life of their VIP in such a case is the responsibility of the Commanding officer and the soldiers of that unit at all times. Their primary role is to cover areas where a sniper attack is likely, especially in a place frequented by their VIP. The commando soldiers were specially trained to recognize the places where a sniper attack could happen. But they had not fulfilled those basic requirements until such an attack happened. This was a very shocking fact was it purposely done to make Mr. Kadirgamar a victim of a sniper attack? Is that why he was not provided adequate security at the residence he frequently visited? If not, it is still a mystery whether it was for the release of a sniper drama after the murder.
The Colombo Crime Division, the Military Intelligence Unit, and the Foreign Intelligence Unit investigated the murder of Mr. Kadirgamar. The Sunday Times Newspaper had reported that the killers that shot Mr. Kadirgamar from the spot, went to launch a shooting attack about a month earlier and gave up at the last minute.
The reason for that was one of Mr. Kadirgamar’s bodyguards was watching the upstairs of that house. However, it does not seem that the Commando unit or the MSD Unit, which provided security to Mr. Kadirgamar, took any serious notice of the risk of an attack from such an upper floor. This was a very serious matter.
Also, no scientific expert tests had been done on the sniper cartridges that were found at the place where the killers had stayed. If they had found bullets in Mr. Kadirgamar’s body, would they match the ammunition casings found at the place where the killers stayed? What type of weapon are those bullets used for? Can four shots be fired from such a weapon at one time? The damage that can be caused to a body by multiple shots from such a distance? And whether such damage had been caused to the body of Mr. Kadirgamar. Those facts should have been confirmed by expert tests.
To credit the killing to the account of LTTE snipers, they did not conduct such important investigations and it seemed that the main objective of the teams that conducted the investigations was to lead the evidence for blaming the LTTE.
After the suspicious death of a renowned high-profile politician in the country, investigators should have seized all the weapons of the security staff who were on the premises at the time of the death and sent them for forensic analysis. But such an action was never taken by the authorities. Why were these weapons never seized and did not send for forensic examination? Who wanted to cover up the real assassin of the Minister?
There were very serious loopholes in the Minister's security but even after the murder, no security officials were responsible to made Minister's life in danger never punished or never court marshalled.
Investigators revealed to the media that the gardener Mutthiah Sahadevan who worked for the house owner of no 42 Lakshman Thalayasingham, was a key suspect in the assassination. They further revealed an LTTE member named Vinothan had contacted Sahadevan and given a lot of money and a mobile phone to facilitate the snipers. However, the analytical phone records of the mobile phone given to Sahadevan by Vinothan did not reveal any names of the shooters.
The Colombo Crime Division had stated that the killer who shot Mr. Kadirgamar called Sahadevan and said in Sinhala that ‘Vede Hari’ (Job was done all right), just after the shooting. It is ridiculous to say that a LTTE sniper talking in Sinhala to another man speaking their common language (Tamil).
One leading English newspaper of Sri Lanka which was very famous for its defence column at that time carried out all the fabricated contradictory stories given by the Colombo Crime Division to blame the LTTE for Minister Murder.
But the next day after the murder, Muttiah Sahadevan, who was engaged in garden work at house number 42, and Isitar Arokyanathan also known as ‘Babu’ who drives a three-wheeler at Buller’s Lane were arrested by the police
Mutthiah Sahadevan, who was arrested by the Colombo Crime Division, while he was going to Kirulapone Sathipola (weekend market) with his wife, was taken to house No. 42 and questioned about cutting down the branches of the tree next to the balcony of house. Sahadevan had stated that he cut those branches of the tree on the instructions of Thalayasingham. And Thalayasingham had confirmed It to the Police.
But to cover up the real murderers of the Minister, the Colombo Crime Division acted to fabricate the sniper drama using Sahadevan. Muttiah Sahadevan a poor day labourer, and a father of two children, remained in prison for fourteen years till his death on the 22nd of June 2019, as a result of this fabricated coverup sniper drama by Sri Lankan investigators.
However, Thalaisingam, who was a former student of the Royal College of Colombo, was not arrested. He was questioned by the investigators for three days and released. And Thalaisingham died a few months after Mr. Kadirgamar’s murder mysteriously. Reports said he died due to natural causes. But Thalayasinghams sudden death after a few months of the murder raised serious questions.
Did someone of the minister’s security or any other person instruct no.42 house owner Thalayasingham to cut down the branches of the so-called tree by the window of the upstairs? And how did he escape arrest by the Police? Did any politician instruct the Police not to arrest him as he was innocent? Did, he mention any name in his statements to the Police who instructed him to cut down the branches of the tree? Was there any agreement between the Police and Thalayasingham not to reveal about who instructed them to cut down the branches? Was it the reason he was not arrested? And how did he die so suddenly? These questions were never answered.
When analysing this coverup drama anyone knowledgeable can understand what happened to the minister Kadirgamar on that night. When he was coming out after a swim someone who paid to kill the minister shot twice with a 9mm pistol targeting his head at close range. After getting the first two shots on the head, he collapsed down and the killer came close to the body of the minister and released another two bullets on his neck and chest to confirm the death. This killer could be either a commando soldier or an MSD officer of the minister’s security unit. Because these officers were highly trained to fight close-range combats and close protection with 9mm pistols. Just after the murder according to their long plan, perpetrators unfolded the LTTE sniper drama to fool the world. That is why none of his security officers were arrested on suspicion of murder or none of their weapons were seized for forensic analysis. This was not a mistake by the investigators.
Months before the death of the Minister, President Kumaratunga wanted her foreign minister to nominate the SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) candidate for prime minister in the next general election. Minister Kadirgamar was a more popular character than then fisheries minister Mahinda Rajapaksha, regardless of his ethnicity at that time among the Sri Lankans. People believed he worked honestly to dismantle the LTTE foreign supplies and get them into the peace process with the Sri Lankan Government.
But Mahinda Rajapaksha did not like it at all and he forced his SLFP party members President Chandrika, to nominate him and not to nominate Kadirgamar as the Prime minister candidate of the SLFP.
Before the General election of April 2004 Mahinda Rajapaksha and Kadirgamar met at Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s residence and Kadirgamar had promised Rajapaksha that he would never contest against Rajapaksha. But as a tempered politician, Rajapaksha did not believe Kadirgamar until he became Prime Minister.
Rajapaksha’s political history was very dirty from the beginning since he was elected to the Sri Lanka parliament in 1970. He eliminated all the political and civil characters against him by hook or crook. His popular method is bribing. If it doesn’t work, he uses his other methods to silence his opponents.
It is a famous story that Mahinda Rajapaksha’s brother Basil Rajapaksha paid Rs. 184 million or more to LTTE through former businessman and current minister of the Sri Lankan government and very close associate of the Rajapaksha family, Tiran Alles to boycott north and east Tamil people from voting in the presidential election in 2005. That method helped him to defeat his political opponent Ranil Wickramasinghe in the presidential election and to become the President of Sri Lanka.
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by (2024-08-12 16:54:54)
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