Parliament orders Police report on controversial newspaper article

• Speaker says acting IGP and military intelligence have no information 
• Report to be taken up at National Security Council
• JVP slams report, says it will create more communal tension    

Parliament yesterday called for an urgent Police report on a controversial article which appeared in a local newspaper, alleging unauthorised sterilisation operations were carried out on 4000 Sinhala Buddhist women by a doctor linked to the banned National Thowheeth Jama’ath organisation.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, responding to a request by Opposition Lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake, held neither the Police nor the intelligence services had information about such surgeries, or a physician believed to have conducted the sterilisations.

“As soon as I saw the newspaper this morning, I spoke with the acting Inspector General of Police and the heads of the intelligence services. They didn’t have any information on the matter. Based on the gravity of this article, investigations will be carried out and also will be taken up at the National Security Council meeting today. And there is also no truth to the rumours of having another member of the National Thowheeth Jama’ath in parliamentary service,” explained Speaker. Bringing the controversial article to the attention of the House, MP Dissanayake highlighted the negative impact it could have on the public. “If this article is true, people will stop consulting Muslim doctors, and also could create a tense situation among the different communities leading to more clashes. It could also lead to putting Muslim doctors out from private hospitals. According to this article, the particular doctor has conducted 7,000 Caesarean surgeries, out of which 4,000 Sinhala Buddhist mothers were subjected to sterilisation,” he said.

“The Government should look into the authenticity of the newspaper article, or investigate the matters to find this physician. The article also claims investigations are underway, but have failed to name the doctor, the hospital, or at least the area,” charged MP Dissanayake.

(AH)