Gunmen travelling in Defender Jeeps once again terrorized parts of Moneragala district last night when they attacked Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) supporters in two separate occasions, Election Monitors said.
A statement issued CaFFe said that two persons have been wounded when the supporters of Badalkumbura pradesheeya sabha deputy chairman attempted to assault members of Janatha Vimukthi Permuna (JVP) who were preparing the stage for an election meeting which will be conducted today with the participation of JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
“The two men belong to the group who arrived to attack the JVP supporters. Badalkumburaj pradesheeya sabha deputy chairman and his supporters earlier confronted JVP supporters demanding them not to prepare the stage and switched off the street lamps in the area making it difficult for them to prepare the stage”, it stated.
The statement also stated that after a short while a group of men in Defender Jeeps have arrived at the scene and had started shooting at the JVP members who fled the scene leaving behind their three-wheelers and motor cycles.
JVP members have continued with the work after lodging a complaint with the OIC of Badalkumbura police.
Meanwhile around the same time three JVP offices have been destroyed and shots have been fired at the houses of JVPers SN Sendeera (Hulandawa, Moneragala,) PGV Wijesiri (Kumbukkana,) and MK Somaratne (Depot Road, Moneragala.) In the last few days JVP offices and supporters were attacked at Madalla, Moneragala, Bibile, Thanamalwila, Sewanagala, Buttala, Kataragama and Badalkumbura.
In the 72 hours that ended on 6 am today (26) CaFFE has received information that 21 offices of United National Party (UNP,) JVP and Democratic Party (DP) have been attacked.
Campaign for Free and Fair Elections yesterday urged the election authorities and policemen to take immediate steps to enforce election laws predicting that things will take a more violent turn.
“Yesterday night's incidents took place as police took no action and continued to ignore our warnings. We hope that the relevant authorities will take appropriate action at least now to enforce election laws in Moneragala”, CaFFe said.
