{"id":46490,"date":"2016-05-03T18:54:11","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T22:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=46490"},"modified":"2016-05-03T18:54:11","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T22:54:11","slug":"dec-2006-bomb-attack-on-gotabhaya-rajapaksa-was-an-inside-job-stage-managed-by-ex-def-secy-himself-alleges-ex-army-chief-sarath-fonseka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=46490","title":{"rendered":"Dec 2006 Bomb Attack On Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Was an Inside Job Stage Managed by Ex &#8211; Def Secy Himself Alleges  Ex &#8211; Army Chief Sarath Fonseka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sri Lanka&#8217;s former army chief told parliament Tuesday that a bomb blast apparently targeting former president Mahinda Rajapakse&#8217;s brother 10 years ago was an &#8220;inside job&#8221; to win sympathy for the then-ruling family.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sarath Fonseka, now a government legislator, said the December 2006 bomb attack blamed on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels had been stage-managed by the president&#8217;s brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse, then -then defence secretary.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No terrorist will set off a suicide bomb 25 meters away from the intended target,&#8221; Fonseka told parliament during a debate on scaling down military security granted to the former strongman leader.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The government has said it is removing troops in Rajapakse&#8217;s bodyguard and replacing them with police commandos as part of a policy of relieving the military from civilian security duties.<\/p>\n<p>Gotabhaya escaped the 2006 bombing in Colombo unhurt but it killed two members of his military convoy.<br \/>\nSoon after the attack, the government asked peacebroker Norway to halt all contacts with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Colombo withdrew from a truce and eventually crushed the rebels by May 2009.<\/p>\n<p>The former army chief led the successful military campaign against the Tigers, but later fell out with the Rajapakse family over who should take credit for the spectacular military success.<\/p>\n<p>He launched a failed challenge to Rajapakse in 2010 elections and was later jailed for two and a half years on corruption charges.<\/p>\n<p>The former army general has since been exonerated of all charges and elevated to the rank of field marshal by Rajapakse&#8217;s successor, Maithripala Sirisena.<\/p>\n<p>The general himself was seriously wounded in a suicide bombing in April 2006.<\/p>\n<p>He recovered to lead the military in wiping out the rebel leadership in a no-holds-barred offensive that also sparked allegations of war crimes.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:Daily News<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton46490\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D46490&amp;text=Dec%202006%20Bomb%20Attack%20On%20Gotabhaya%20Rajapaksa%20Was%20an%20Inside%20Job%20Stage%20Managed%20by%20Ex%20%26%238211%3B%20Def%20Secy%20Himself...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sri Lanka&#8217;s former army chief told parliament Tuesday that a bomb blast apparently targeting former president Mahinda Rajapakse&#8217;s brother 10 years ago was an &#8220;inside job&#8221; to win sympathy for the then-ruling family. Sarath Fonseka, now a government legislator, said the December 2006 bomb attack blamed on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels had been stage-managed by &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=46490\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Dec 2006 Bomb Attack On Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Was an Inside Job Stage Managed by Ex &#8211; Def Secy Himself Alleges  Ex &#8211; Army Chief Sarath Fonseka&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46491,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46490\/revisions\/46491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}