Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Gen. Janaka Perera: Sri Lankan Freedom Fighter

"Freedom to a geek is the salvation to a soul!"
--Born Free--
born.free.1987@gmail.com


My posts are normally not oriented towards any kind of political movement that would give me some sort of personal benefit. The reason for this post is a shocking news I heard yesterday morning. It was so shocking, that I wanted to post immediately about it. But I needed more info and images related to this post.

The breaking news of 06.10.2008 morning was about a suicide bomb attack launched in Anuradhapura, an old city in Sri Lanka where tourists go the most to see relics and ancient monuments. For Sri Lankans, these types of attacks are not that much of news since they have been seing these thing for more than two dicades thanks to the insane and malicious activities of LTTE (Liberal Tigers' Tamil Eelaam), one of the world's most known terrorist groupes.

The attack was targetted towards the guets attending a ceremony held due to the newly established regional base of the main opposition party of Sri Lanka, namely UNP (United National Party). The party was represented in the last provincial election in Anuradhapura by retired Major General Janaka Perera. He was one of the best the Sri Lnaka army ever had. He launched a number of successful missions in the battle to bring freedom to the people who live in Nothern Province of Sri Lanka.

After retirement, he decided to fight for people by joining the active politics. We saw him getting in to his last election campain as a true gentleman. The LTTE was looking for a moment to take revenge from him. Knowing the threat to his life, he requested protection form the government. Being a member of the opposition was enough for them to ignore the fact that this man truely is a hero to be protected. He was lucky enough to survive the election being the one with the highest individual votes.

This true freedom fighter was the chief guest at the ceremony where the bomb exploded. A man who survived active service in the battle fied for many years trying his best for the freedom of his people, got killed as a civilian yet trying to win the freedom for his people simply because of the ignorance of authorities. The true irony of the fate is that the very man who spent his entire life trying to protect the freedom of his people, lost his freedom to live due to the ignorrance of his own people.

I wish Major General Janaka Perera and all other twenty people or so people got killed including his wife may find the harmony and freedom of their soules soon. You are a true "Freedom Fighter" to us.