Leader of the House Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva during the question time in Parliament yesterday (2) said it was fortunate that UNP and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe did not have his pistol with him at the UNP press conference, where he had been angry with a journalist. Wickremesinghe appeared so angry that he may have used the weapon on the journalist.

Nimal Siripala de Silva’s comment was provoked when the UNP Colombo District member Ravi Karunanayake raised a question about the killing of the Eastern Province Chief Minister’s secretary near a checkpoint.

Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardena replied that there was a large number of weapons that had been brought into the country and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said over fifteen years back that arms were being smuggled from Afghanistan to India and they ended up in Sri Lanka. Therefore, all parties should cooperate to curb the threat of terrorism.

Ranil Wickremesinghe: You are asking us to cooperate but you should talk to the Tamil National Alliance. When private weapons were handed over to the government 1997 I too handed over my private pistol to the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Nimal Siripala de Silva: It was fortunate that you did not have the weapon with you. You were so angry you may have shot journalist Sandun Jayasekara!

Wickremesinghe: No I did not scold him I only asked him why racist news was published in the newspaper.