Sri Lanka’s Presidential Secretariat has denied a media report that its staff were involved in a recent “attack” on the Jaffna Public Library.
In a statement here, it referred to news report in The Sunday Leader headlined “Jaffna Public Library Comes under attack, again” and said it was based on unverified and unauthenticated information.
The English weekly said pandemonium reigned in Jaffna when the library was stormed by hundreds of unarmed assailants on October 23. The weekly said it sought clarification from Tamil National Alliance M.P. Suresh Premachandran and he corroborated the story.
“Following inquiries from the police and other relevant authorities we categorically state that no member of the Presidential Secretariat was involved in this incident”, the President’s Secretariat said.
The statement regretted that such a report was published without adequate verification of facts, especially in view of the memories it revives of the earlier attack and destruction of the Jaffna Public Library, which is treasured by the people of Jaffna, and has been rebuilt by the government with contributions from people from all parts of Sri Lanka.
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