By Shane Seneviratne
It took nearly 12 years and the Diyawadane Nilame’s expose, at a press conference, of the JVP attack on the Dalada Maligawa, for one man who was severely injured in that attack to tell his story .
K.G. Sisira then 19, was employed at the Kandy Municipal Council as a labourer. On that unforgettable day, February 8, 1989, on which the Dalada Maligawa was attacked, Sisira was going home to Lewella in a CTB bus. Close to the Maligawa gunshots were heard and the driver had stopped the bus right in front of the Maligawa.
It was then that Sisira saw a man in a blue T-shirt, with a gun in his hand, chasing a soldier. Subsequently he had learnt the man was a JVPer. Sisira was standing on the footboard of the bus when the soldier pushed him in and boarded the bus. At that moment the gunman had shot at random and Sisira was hit in his right leg.
In the shooting one person had died. Sisira was taken to hospital and was there for eight months. Four bullets were found in his leg which was ultimately amputated.
Sisira, though disabled was back at the Kandy Municipal Council library now working as a peon. He was the sole breadwinner in his family. He told The Sunday Times that to date he had not received a cent as compensation.
If Somawansa Amarasinghe says that the JVP was willing to compensate the families that had suffered at their hands, then he too should be compensated, Sisira said.
He added that no amount of compensation or acceptance of their guilt can erase the fact that the JVP had attacked the sacred Dalada Maligawa.
–https://www.sundaytimes.lk/011202/news3.html
ජවිපෙ ශ්රී දළදා මාළිගයට පහරදීම JVP Attack to Sri Dalada Maligawa
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