Elected Muslim councillor in Jaffna refutes claims of SL military commander

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2018, 22:21 GMT]
“Muslims from the North-East did not play any leadership role in militarily defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as the Sri Lanka Chief of Defence Staff was claiming last week. There is no truth in the claim,” K.M. Nilam Niyaz, one of the two Muslim councillors recently elected to Jaffna Municipal Council, told TamilNet on Sunday. “As you are aware, the military is trying to exploit the situation to its advantage politically. Tamils and Muslims should not allow them to be deceived by this propaganda. Instead, they should stand united as Tamil-speaking people like they did before 1990. All the ethnicities in the island should live in peace and harmony,” the 47-year-old Tamil-speaking Muslim politician commented further.



There are also reports alleging that the STF, the SL Police and possibly also the military as standing by when the mobs were attacking mosques and shops in the Central Province, he further observed.

It is obvious that there was an organised force behind the spread of anti-Muslim pogrom in which mosques and shops were attacked. The elements that took part in the violence were carrying out a hate crime, he said and added that the SL government should take responsibility and provide compensation to all who have lost their properties.

The SL military should execute its law-bound duty without creating divisions, Mr Niyaz further said.

The reaction from Muslim councillor in Jaffna comes after the Chief of Defence Staff of the occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka, Admiral Ravindra Chandrasiri Wijegunaratne, went on record with the following claim last week:

"It is Muslims who led our long-range reconnaissance patrols at the risk of losing their lives. In the process, some of them were killed by the LTTE. We are alive today, because of our brave Muslim brothers. The LTTE attacked and chased the Muslims away from areas which were under its control in the North and East because they did not support their cause. Sinhalese who unfairly harm Muslims are traitors. We have a duty to protect the Muslims."

In the meantime, Tamil political observers in Jaffna condemned the Tamil media outlets which published the statement of the ‘Sri Lankan’ Admiral without any critical analysis of his claim.

Those among the Tamils, who were expressing similar sentiments as that of the Sinhala military commander in social media were either misinformed or have been deceived by the campaign of the SL military intelligence, they further said.

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An ex-LTTE commander who was highly placed in the movement before 2009 told TamilNet that the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols or the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) as most commonly known, was in fact trained by the Israelis for a long time.

Muslim personalities such as the late Lt. Col. Tuwan Nizam Muthaliff, who played a role in the LRRP operations, were of Malay origins. They were mostly Colombo-based even though they had some connections in the East, according to the ex-LTTE commander, who didn't wish to be named due to security reasons.

“As the former SL Navy Commander was making his claims, one could also claim that the LTTE could not have carried out some of its major operations in the South without the assistance it received from Tamil-speaking Muslims,” the ex-LTTE commander further said.

Chronology: