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Conspiracy behind Town Hall bomb blast to assassinate the President: UNP denies allegations [11 Jan 2000] UNP General Secretary Gamini Athukorale yesterday denied the government's allegation of a conspiracy by some leading businessmen, the LTTE and the UNP to assassinate the President, according to a special press release. In the press release Mr. Athukorale accused the government for attempting to suppress media freedom under the cover of defeating the LTTE, the Daily Mirror said. The state media has alleged that the Town Hall bomb blast that was planned to assassinate the President last month was a part of a conspiracy to stage a military coup. But opposition and media organizations have condemned the accusations saying the government wants to stifle opposition, BBC News reports. But the UNP rejected these allegations saying the government was trying to "kill democracy". Mr. Athukorale however denied these charges saying that these kind of allegations would affect the morale of the security forces, leading to disasters in the battle front. He also said that the security forces had fought for two decades to protect the integrity of the country. The Free Media Movement too yesterday rejected all allegations made against a group of journalists by the government in relation to a conspiracy theory, and called the move an attempt to suppress democracy and media freedom in the country, the Daily Mirror said. According to the Daily News, there were reports that several army personnel too were linked to this alleged plot and there had been plans to capture power through a military coup if the President was killed in the town hall bomb blast. The evidence of the plot had been exposed from several taped telephone conversations, which involved some high businessmen as well as military personnel.
Several people were taken in for questioning in
this regard including the wife of Union Bank's Managing Director Mr. S.
Shanmuganathan. The CID is carrying out further investigations.
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