By Norman Palihawadana

Irked by various quarters raising concern over the arrest of former Colombo Deputy Mayor Azath Salley, blunt speaking Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday said that Salley was arrested for discussing the option of taking up arms and inciting Muslim youth in a speech, in Tamil Nadu.

The Defence Secretary asked whether there was anything wrong in arresting a man who goes public with such provocative talk. Some media outfits were trying to make a hero out of him, he said.

The no-nonsense Rajapaksa sibling recalled that when young Tamils started the violent campaign, their leaders like A. Amirthalingam chose to ignore it saying that they were just boys, but such leaders themselves had to pay with their lives to those terrorists for their folly.

As long as he was the Defence Secretary, he would leave no room for extremist acts to resurface once again, Rajapaksa said.

He said Salley could never be another Prabhakaran and no room would be left for such characters to rise again. That was why they were keeping a tab on all possible trouble makers.

COURTESY:THE ISLAND