Kumara and I were interrogated in turns says Attygalle

The central committee member of the newly formed Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) Dimuthu Attygalle, who was allegedly abducted and released yesterday (10), at a press conference spoke in detail regarding her abduction and the incidents which followed.

Attygalle explained that she was forced into a white van in the evening of 6 April near the road to her Godagama residence and was subsequently blindfolded and her mouth bound.

Dimuthu Attygalle addressing the press conference yesterday - Pic by Romesh Danushaka Silva

She claimed that her abductors had continuously questioned her, as the head of international affairs of the People’s Struggle Movement, and when she had not responded initially they had struck her once.

 “However, they did not hit me after that they continued to interrogate me,” she said.

Attygalle said she was taken to a distant location, which she claims felt “linked to security forces,” by around six armed individuals.

She said she was locked inside a room and questioned by an “officer” for over two hours, regarding the connections of the People’s Struggle Movement’s international affairs unit.

She says she was questioned regarding funding, an armed struggle, Lalith and Kugan and also information regarding individual members of the organisation.

Attygalle added that when she was questioned again at around dawn the next day Premakumar Gunaratnam a.k.a Kumara, who was also reported missing on 6 April, was present in the interrogation room. “We were both questioned in turns.”   

After around two hours of interrogation, Dimuthu Attygalle says she was once against locked inside a room while Kumara was taken away separately.

In the night on the same day we were taken to another secret location, she said “I think Kumara was in the vehicle as well.”

She said she was held there until yesterday morning.

She stated that one of the men holing her captive, who she had not seen before, came to see her and said “we are sending Kumara to Australia. There is an issue in his passport, he is an Australian citizen therefore we are deporting him.”

He had informed her that she would be release after Kumara Gunarathnam reaches Australia.

 “I did not respond to that, however last night they told me to get ready to go.” “When I was ready, I felt that we were not going to leave in the night.”

However yesterday morning another individual had spoken to, telling her to get ready to leave. “He told me Kumara has gone to Australia therefore I will be released.”

Attygalle said she was instructed to get into a vehicle and keep her eyes closed, “we will remove your eyes” they had allegedly threatened her. “Don’t look at the number plate of the vehicle, there is no use even if you did and don’t try to identify us,” they had said.

Her abductors had inquired as to where she needed to go and when she had said the office in Madiwela, they had said she would be dropped off near the office as they could not take her there.

She was handed some money and asked to take a three-wheeler from there.

Speaking at the press conference in Rajagiriya, Dimuthu Attygalle alleged she heard her abductees use terminology usually by police officers however they had repeatedly stated that: “this has nothing to do with the government.”

She said an abductor had later told her that the abduction had been carried out in order to probe if their group had any links with the LTTE or an armed uprising and had admitted that they now believed it wasn’t so.