Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 June 2010, 19:27 GMT]
Vinayagmoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, a former Tiger commander who turned leader of a paramilitary group operated by the Sri Lanka Army in the East and later became a deputy minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's cabinet visited Jaffna Thursday for the first time after having joined United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government. Muralitharan, accompanied by the Minister of Resettlement Milroy Fernando, was primarily engaged in activities in promoting the resettlement of Muslims in Jaffna peninsula meeting Muslim Welfare Organizations (MFO) and government officials. Meanwhile, civil society circles in Jaffna pointed out that Mr. Muralitharan had been in Jaffna as a key Commander of the Liberation Tigers when the Muslims of the North were forcibly evacuated by the Tigers in 1990.



Mr. Muralitharan first visited Periya Pa’l’livaasal (Big Mosque) and Osmania College in Jaffna town where he met and held talks with the representatives of MWO before meeting the government officials in Jaffna Secretariat to discuss matters related to the resettlement of Muslims in their own properties in Jaffna peninsula.

The Sri Lankan deputy minister told MWO representatives that steps should be taken to seek financial aid from wealthy Muslim countries with the approval of Sri Lanka government to promote projects of resettlement of Muslims in the peninsula.

Journalists in Jaffna said that Mr. Muralitharan avoided meeting them though they had tried to meet him.