Mahinda Rajapaksa warned that "terrorists" were using the "cover of human rights" to attack Sri Lanka, when addressing the graduation ceremony at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) at Temple Trees on Tuesday.

Rajapaksa said,

"Terrorists who attacked us once hiding in the civil society, attack us in the cover of human rights today."

“If this was a personal attack, it would have been easy for me to tolerate. But this is not so. These attacks are against the motherland. You need to understand that it is a threat posed to national security."

“It is the duty of all of us to work towards taking the country to a top position in the world. After the liberation of the country we did not forget our war heroes. We love them respect them and trust them forever”.

According to the Sri Lankan government's official news portal, Rajapaksa added,

"Even though 2 years have elapsed since defeating terrorism, challenges faced by our motherland are not yet over. During the period of terror, the money earned by terrorists was spent on purchasing weapons, ships and flights. Today that money is spent on various misinformation campaigns and political conspiracies aimed at destabilizing the country."

"False allegations against the Government are still being circulated in the country. We need to understand that telecasting programmes based on fraudulent information about the conflict, forming international human rights commissions against Sri Lanka, and claims about war crimes are all inter-connected."