Send children to school without fear – Army Commander

The Sri Lanka Army Commander urges parents to send their children to school again from tomorrow, without any fear.

Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake says that the tri-forces and the police have given priority to strengthening the security of schools.

The complete message of the Army Commander:

“Following the unfortunate terrorist attack and its impact on 21 April 2019, normalcy and day-to-day life of the society was badly crippled. As a result, the attendance of state and private sector employees who contribute to the country’s development declined and normalcy disrupted. Hence, the Police and the Armed Forces with dedicated commitment provided security to all the places to ensure security and normalcy in the country.

Since HE the President as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces empowered Armed Forces giving all provisions to conduct operations and destroy terrorist elements within a short period of time, the Army and sister services are fully and confidently assisting law enforcement authorities to apprehend the culprits and go ahead with necessary searches and investigations. Those operations are effectively advancing now with a marked progress as at now. A satisfactory level of attendance of employees at private and state sector has been reported in the recent few days as a result of intensified security arrangements in place, prompting day-today-life to reach full normalcy as seen in the past few weeks.

Irrespective of all security measures in place for students to attend schools when the second school reopened, many parents trusting unconfirmed stories, various rumours and gossip were reluctant to send in their beloved children to schools. At this juncture, I emphasize that since members of the Armed Forces and the Police on priority basis have taken all necessary steps to ensure security arrangements for all schools, parents should now send their children to schools without resorting to irrational fears as such.

Although several violent acts from some areas were reported after the terrorist attack, members of the Armed Forces and the Police have been able to apprehend many of them and bring them to justice after bringing those violent acts under control. In order to avoid any recurrence of such violent acts, Armed Forces and the Police have now jointly launched a programme. During the past two days of Vesak, a security network was in effect covering all Buddhist places of worship and all Vesak programmes ended successfully without any untoward incident or breach of peace whatsoever across the island as a result.

The Army as the ‘Rata Rakina Jaathiya’ assures you that all precautionary security measures for protection of all citizens and property of this country have been now put in place as a force always on vigil and requests from parents again to let all students who are the strength of our future generation to resume their school attendance without any fear or suspicion as their security has now been prioritized. I also urge everyone in the country to cooperate with the armed forces to carry out their security duties effectively.”