-By Sanjaya Dassanayake
(Lanka-e-News -31.Jan.2026, 5.20 AM) 21 years ago, in 2005, the first web newspaper to be established in Sri Lanka, 'Lanka-e-News', was set on fire and today, January 31, it has been 15 years. This is a special article published on that.
It was the early hours of January 31, 2011. I was sleeping in my house in the Koswatta Journalist Housing Complex in Battaramulla when I received an emergency phone call at around 4.30 am. The call was from Sandaruwan Aiya, who was in England.
''Brother, the Malabe office has been set on fire. Quickly go with Tudor and see what has happened. Don't go alone.'' Sandaruwan Aiya said anxiously. My body was cold. My wife, who was sleeping with me, was also awake and listening to the short phone conversation between us.
''Who spoke? Why, what happened? A lot of questions from my wife. ''Someone has set the office on fire. The call from Sandaruwan Aiya, he asked me to go there and see with Tudor Aiya.'' I replied. ''Don't go right away. It's not even light yet.'' She said, frightened. ''No, I'm not going alone. He asked me to take Tudor Aiya with me. Don't be afraid.'' I replied, and after 10 minutes, taking my camera with me, I got on my Bajaj motorbike and set off for Tudor Aiya's house on Dutugemunu Mawatha, about 500 meters from our house. When I went to Tudor Aiya's house, it was convenient for him to wait at his house until I arrived, so we both reached the e-News office on Daham Mawatha in Malabe within another 10 minutes.
When we reached Daham Mawatha at around 4.45 pm, we saw the Lanka e-News office still smoking. By then, several neighbours were there around the office, and they said that the fire must have started between 1.30 am and 2.30 am, and they tried to put it out. In fact, due to their efforts, the neighbours were able to put out the fire without allowing it to spread completely. Since it was already dark by then, we both spent another 45 minutes chatting with the neighbours until the darkness subsided.
At around 5.45 in the morning, as darkness slowly receded, Tudor Aiya and I entered the office through the main door of the office, which was still open, to inspect the damage caused by the fire.
The e-News office in Rajagiriya was operated in a house on Daham Mawatha in Malabe after the 2010 presidential election, and the computers of that Lanka e-news office were located in one room, and the editorial board and library were located in a fairly large room.
''Sanjaya Malli, do you smell kerosene? Tudor Aiya asked. I nodded and replied, 'Yes'. As soon as we entered, we realised that the office had been set on fire by pouring kerosene. In a few moments, we realised that the computers and library had been completely burned down due to the fire.
Although Tudor Aiya was the assistant of our office, Sandaruwan Aiya, who was in England, had assigned him the responsibility of all other activities except media activities. Therefore, when he immediately gave Sandaruwan Aiya a status report of the office that had been set on fire on the phone, I immediately turned on my camera and captured the destruction caused by the fire on the camera.
About half an hour later, with the news that the Lanka e News office had been set on fire, various media institutions and the Thalangama Police arrived at around 7.00 am and started preliminary investigations. In the meantime, our editor 'Bennett', media colleagues Shantha, Gunasiri Aiya, and Asanka of the computer department arrived at Daham Mawatha, and later, many UNP MPs who were in the opposition at that time arrived at Daham Mawatha in Malabe upon hearing the news that Lanka e News had been set on fire.
After the arson attack, the then Lanka-e-News News Editor Bennett Rupasinghe had called a media conference and said the following.
"It has been 5 years since our institution was established. We have been running this institution amidst great threats. Last night at around 1.30, some people forcibly entered and destroyed all our equipment, computers, photocopy machines, fax machines, and cameras. Nothing has been left. We had a collection of books that were 100 to 200 years old and cannot be found even in some libraries. All those things have been destroyed. We cannot assess their value.
The Thalangama police officers recorded separate statements from all of our staff. News editor Bennett Rupasinghe directly stated before the media that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government was responsible for this. In Bennett’s police statement, when asked who was suspected of the fire, he said that the government was responsible.
The police officer who took my statement asked me what had happened from the previous night to that morning. After I had answered all his questions, he asked me the last question, who was suspected of the E-News fire. In response, I stated that the government should accept responsibility for what had happened before and after the 2010 presidential election.
After the initial police investigation was completed, the police took steps to put up yellow tape so that no one could enter the office that had been set on fire.
By 10 am, every major media outlet had come to Malabe's Daham Mawatha and reported that Lanka e News had been set on fire. The electronic media had dedicated a special place to this news in the afternoon and evening main news bulletins, and the print media the next day.
Meanwhile, several members of parliament from the then main opposition United National Party had been giving 'voice cuts' to the media from time to time, condemning the arson at the spot and blaming the Rajapaksa government for it. Among them were Mangala Samaraweera, Ravi Karunanayake, Sujeewa Senasinghe and several others. Among them was the then opposition MP and current Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath.
In addition, several senior journalists representing various media organisations gave voice cuts to media outlets in front of the Lanka e News office on Daham Mawatha, condemning the arson.
The editor-in-chief of the Dinamina newspaper at that time was Mahinda Abeysundara. The day after the Lanka-e-News office was set on fire, the Dinamina newspaper had reported as a special news item on its front page that "women's underwear and condoms" had been found in the burnt-out Lanka-e-News office.
I was the first person to go inside and take photographs after the office caught fire. I did not find the condoms and underwear found by Dinamina when I took photographs of every corner of the office. It was later learned that due to a dispute between former Dinamina editor and our news editor Bennett Rupasinghe, and Mahinda Abeysundara, Mahinda Abeysundara had hit Bennett with women's underwear and condoms.
Mr. Bennett, who was angry about this false news, had called Mahinda Abeysundara on the phone and scolded him, saying, "You will die of worms someday." As he had said, it was said that Mahinda Abeysundara had been ill during his last days and had even developed wounds on his body.
The Lanka-e-News office was located on Malabe Dhamma Road. The Malabe area was under the Thalangama Police. The Thalangama Police belonged to the Nugegoda Superintendent of Police. At that time, the Nugegoda Mirihana Superintendent of Police was the notorious Deshabandhu Tennakoon. The statements taken from all of us by the Thalangama Police after the Lanka e News arson were read by Superintendent of Police Deshabandhu.
The day after the incident, at around 7.00 pm, while I was at home, one of my friends, Sudharman Radaliyagoda, who was then the head of the Independent Television Network (ITN), called me on my phone. Suda, who asked about the details of the arson, said, "Hey, there's a friend, please talk to him for a moment", and handed the phone to someone there. Deshabandhu was there at the other end. At that moment, he told me, "I read your statement. "Why are you working in a place where there is such rubbish? Find a better place. Sudharmans is here, I will tell him to find you another place." He then handed the phone back to Sudharman.
Deshabandu has never been my friend. I have never spoken to him on the phone before. That is why I felt his advice was a "friendly threat".
Lanka-e-News had taken an anti-war stance from the beginning and exposed serious fraud, corruption and irregularities of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, and that is why the then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa threatened Lanka-e-News.
In the 2010 presidential election, General Sarath Fonseka, the former army commander, entered the election campaign against then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa. At that time, Lanka-e-News provided more media coverage for Fonseka, who had entered the presidential race with the support of the opposition.
At that time, Basil Rajapaksa, who was the head of Mahinda's election campaign, had somehow put most of the media institutions operating in Sri Lanka in his pocket. But he could not put Lanka-e-News in his pocket. After that, various threats began to be made to Lanka-e-News throughout the election period.
Due to the anti-war stance and anti-corruption stance, the then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government published through the state media that 'Lanka-e-News' was a pro-LTTE website. Due to this propaganda, commercial companies were reluctant to provide advertisements to Lanka E-News. The reason for this was that they did not want to incur the wrath of the Rajapaksa government by giving advertisements.
We have always understood that some groups are keeping an eye on the whereabouts of the e-news journalists due to the malicious propaganda carried out through the state media as a pro-LTTE website. With the official announcement that General Sarath Fonseka would enter the presidential race, motorcyclists who could be thought to be intelligence officers constantly followed our whereabouts.
The two daughters of the Lanka-e-News editor-in-chief were educated at a private school owned by Tiran Alles' family at that time. Once, Tiran Alles' mother had told the wife of our editor-in-chief that Tiran Alles was willing to buy the Lanka e-news website. However, the amount that Alles bid through his mother to buy Lanka-e-News, which was a very popular Sinhala news website at that time, was a small amount to mention here. However, after the e-news office was closed, he bought the Lanka-e-News team that remained to serve the 'Mawbima' newspaper started by Tiran Alles.
During the 2010 presidential election campaign, Prageeth Eknaligoda was a journalist who wrote political articles and cartoons for the Lanka-e-News web newspaper. The political arena was very heated due to the competition between the former army commander who led the army to end the 30-year-long war and President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who gave the political leadership to end the war.
Eknaligoda wrote political articles strongly criticising the Rajapaksa family and some politicians who supported him. Therefore, on the night of January 24, 2010, two days before the 2010 presidential election, that is, on the night of January 24, 2010, a special army team commanded by the then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa abducted and disappeared Prageeth Eknaligoda.
Mahinda won the 2010 presidential election, defeating Fonseka. With Fonseka's defeat, the Rajapaksa family quickly began taking revenge on those who supported Fonseka. The water and electricity supplies to the Lanka-e-News Rajagiriya office, which had been operating for 05 years, were cut off, and the owner of the building threatened to take over the building.
In addition, someone had broken the deadbolts of the gate to the office and put new deadbolts in such a way that no one could enter. In addition, white vans without number plates and unknown persons began to roam around the office. Due to this, the editor decided to temporarily close the e-news office.
After the January 26, 2010, presidential election, threats from white vans began to be made frequently to the Lanka-e-News Rajagiriya office and the editor-in-chief and his family, who were residing there, had to immediately change their place of residence for their life. A few weeks later, the editor-in-chief fled abroad for his life. He has not visited Sri Lanka to this day.
After the Malabe office was set on fire, lawyer Shiral Lakthilaka gave a part of a building he owned in Rajagiriya to run the e-news office. The e-news office and staff, which were moved back to Rajagiriya, were threatened again in a round of threats. One night, a threatening notice was posted on the office gate. The next threat was to arrest and imprison the e-news editorial board on false charges.
First, news editor Bennett Rupasinghe who was around 70 years old man, and who had never held a pistol in his hand in his life, was arrested by the Wellampitiya police on March 31, 2011, on suspicion that he had pointed a pistol at one of the two suspects presented by the police for setting fire to Lanka e-news and threatened to kill him. Secondly, journalist Shantha Wijesuriya was arrested on April 25, 2011, on charges of insulting Pugoda Magistrate Aravinda Perera. Both of them were remanded in custody.
On February 11, 2011, 10 days after the arson, a drug addict named 'Ghost' and another person were arrested by a special team of Deshabandu Tennakoon's Nugegoda Mirihana Police in Beruwala, on suspicion. However, the police failed to produce evidence against them, and it was later revealed that Deshabandu Tennakoon had initially presented the drug addict 'Ghost' and the other person to court after promising Rs. 25,000 for a promise of Rs. 50,000.
The two suspects, who were remanded for 02 weeks, were released on bail on the next court date due to lack of evidence, and no investigation into the arson was carried out after that.
After the Sri Lanka office of Lanka-e-News was closed, the Rajapaksa government took steps to ban the website, which was operated from abroad, in Sri Lanka from 19 October 2011. From then on, the e-news ban, which was in place until Maithripala Sirisena was elected President in 2015, was lifted by the Maithri-Ranil Yahapalana government. That too was limited to a short period of about a year. Maithripala Sirisena also banned Lanka-e-News. This was because Lanka-e-News thwarted his plans to make a multi-million dollar scam by trying to buy a warship from Russia. The ban was lifted after Anura Dissanayake became President. Lanka-e-News had been banned in Sri Lanka for 14 years. No media institution in Sri Lanka had ever been banned for such a long period.
One day, Deshabandhu Tennakoon, who was then a Deputy Inspector General of Police, attended a party held at Thusitha Halloluwa's house. Halloluwa, who was in a daze, made a phone call to the Lanka-e-News editor who was abroad... ''Sande...there is a friend. He needs to talk to you for a second''. Deshabandu was on the other side. "Oh, my dear brother...don't hit me through your web, please...help me to become the IGP."
After a brief conversation with him, the E-News editor asked Deshabandu why he was not investigating the E-News arson. Deshabandu stated that the then Senior DIG in charge of the Colombo District, Anura Senanayake, had instructed him not to investigate further about the incident.
However, personal investigations conducted by the Lanka-e-News editor into the arson had revealed that Duminda Silva's group had carried out the arson on the instructions of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. After that, Gotabaya's obedient police dog, Anura Senanayake, had ordered his subordinates to stop the police investigations into the e-News arson.
The arson attack on Lanka-e-News on the morning of January 31, 2011, has become yet another unsolved incident that occurred during “Black January,” the month when journalists and media institutions in Sri Lanka were subjected to the most attacks under the Rajapaksa regime.
How tragic that a man who is responsible for the arson attacks on media institutions, the abductions, disappearances, assaults and killings of journalists is still living his life without any danger, even after more than a year of a people’s government in power?
Below is a video of a protest held by Media Organizations on February 1, 2011 against the burning of Lanka e News
---------------------------
by (2026-01-31 00:00:53)
)
Read 5730 Times
Leave a Reply
0 discussion on this news