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Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP D.V. Chanaka has accused a Deputy Minister of the National People’s Power (NPP) government of issuing a direct death threat against Namal Rajapaksa, as tensions escalate over the government’s crackdown on the Rajapaksa clan.
Speaking in Parliament on February 25, Chanaka claimed that an NPP Deputy Minister had threatened Namal, warning that if he visited a village, “he will end up in a pit”.
“We have witnessed ongoing repression and continued threats, and now a Deputy Minister of this very Government is telling MP Namal Rajapaksa that if he goes to the village, he will end up in a pit,” Chanaka alleged.
He criticised the contradictory stance of the NPP government, pointing out that while it was accusing the Rajapaksas of connections to underworld activities, a government minister was issuing threats of extrajudicial violence.
The allegations come as Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government intensifies its investigations into the financial misdeeds of the Rajapaksa regime. The new administration has begun rolling back state privileges previously afforded to Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family, including cutting down his state-funded security detail.
With the government pushing ahead with efforts to hold those responsible for corruption accountable, allies of the Rajapaksa family have accused the NPP of authoritarianism. Chanaka went as far as to compare the ruling party’s actions to the militant insurgencies of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), claiming that a violent political culture was resurfacing.
Speaking to CNN-News18, Namal Rajapaksa dismissed the alleged threats, stating that he would not be intimidated.
“I am Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son. My father has faced many such threats during his 55-year-long political career. He faced them and survived,” he declared defiantly.
“If Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government thinks they can silence me by issuing such threats, they are wrong. I will travel across Sri Lanka to meet the people and rebuild my party, SLPP. The government has not been able to fulfil their election promises and now threatening me to cover their failures.”