Pressures on judges and monks: new campaign with opposition leader - SLPP move

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) General Secretary, attorney Sagara Kariyawasam, is reported to be preparing a different kind of political campaign together with Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.

The matter has emerged through a letter he sent to the Opposition Leader yesterday. The letter seeks a parliamentary debate against the pressures being applied to judges and Buddhist monks under the present government.

The request centres on former Gampaha magistrate Bandula Gunarathna and Palangoda Kassapa Thero. On Magistrate Bandula Gunarathna, the letter points out that the Judicial Services Commission examined even old complaints from six years earlier and gave him an urgent transfer.

Similarly, it notes that police have obtained court orders against the continued activities of figures including Palangoda Kassapa Thero, who openly identifies himself as belonging to the Rajapaksa camp.

Political circles say the move to seek a parliamentary debate has been made against this background. The news has become a talking point among political observers that former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's camp is building a new political strategy against the ruling government.