Minister reveals more details about suspect behind Kilinochchi ‘LTTE Camp’ claim

Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala today revealed further details about a man who recently held a media briefing claiming to have discovered an LTTE training camp in Pallai, Kilinochchi, saying investigations found no evidence to support the claim.

Making a special statement in Parliament, Wijepala identified the individual as Sangeeth Jayasekara, a resident of Boralesgamuwa.

The minister said Jayasekara had been arrested and remanded for 14 days.

According to Wijepala, investigations had found that the suspect possessed two fake identity cards and had used seven different addresses. He had also been named as a suspect in three separate criminal cases, including cases involving alleged fraud.

Wijepala said the suspect had also falsely posed as a doctor.

The minister further said Jayasekara had previously been employed as a consultant attached to certain ministerial staff, adding that authorities were investigating those appointments.

Wijepala said authorities investigated the site in Kilinochchi following the claims made at the media briefing but found no evidence that it had been used as an LTTE training camp. Investigations instead found that the location was a cultivation site, he said.

The minister accused the suspect of intentionally misleading the public in an attempt to create divisions among communities.

Wijepala reiterated that authorities had received no reports of terrorist activity linked to the location and said there would be no room for terrorism or attempts to use the issue to incite racial or communal divisions.

The government had earlier rejected social media claims that an LTTE training camp was being maintained in Kilinochchi.

Cabinet Spokesman Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said the site in question was located in the Kannagipuram, Mukkanpam area of the Kilinochchi District, on land gazetted as a forest reserve in 1919.

According to Jayatissa, the issue concerned alleged illegal cultivation and construction on state land and had been subject to court proceedings on several occasions.

He said incidents involving forest clearing and unauthorized construction at the site had been reported to forest authorities since 2025, while seven cases had been filed against an individual identified as Thyagarasa Kuladeepan over activities at the location.

Jayatissa said an initial 10 acres had been cleared before the area was expanded to 20 acres for aloe vera and vegetable cultivation. A three-storey building housing an apparel manufacturing operation had also been constructed at the site.

The Kilinochchi Magistrate’s Court had ordered the individual to vacate the land in February, but the order had allegedly not been complied with, while activities including sand mining using heavy machinery had continued, Jayatissa said.

The government maintains that the matter concerns alleged illegal occupation of state land, unauthorized construction, cultivation and sand mining, and not the operation of an LTTE training camp. (Newswire)

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