Shooting outside BASL President’s home; Police commence investigations

• President, Ranil pay visit to Wijeyadasa

By Dharisha Bastians

Police investigations have commenced into the complaint that gunshots were fired outside the residence of Bar Association of Sri Lanka President and Member of Parliament Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe on Wednesday night.

Family members had heard noises outside just past midnight on Thursday, but put it down to firecrackers, however the MP’s driver had found empty bullets outside the house last morning, Police said. A complaint has been filed in this regard with the Mirihana Police. The complaint said that one bullet had struck a wall of the house.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and several Opposition politicians visited Rajapakshe at his home yesterday. Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Army Chief and DNA Leader Sarath Fonseka, and MPs Sajith Premadasa and Ravi Karunanayake were among those to visit the BASL President’s home to express solidarity.

Senior Police officials also arrived to assure Rajapakshe that a speedy investigation into the incident would be conducted.

The incident comes amidst growing opposition to Government moves to remove Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake from office, especially from the legal fraternity.

Earlier this week, an armed group attempted to assault Attorney-at-Law Guneratne Wanninayake, a vocal anti-impeachment critic and Convenor of the Free March movement, which is a constituent member of the Lawyers Collective that is mobilising the legal fraternity against the impeachment.

The BASL last Saturday adopted several resolutions to fight the impeachment, and said they would not recognise a new chief justice appointment if the present impeachment procedure continued.