No LTTE Camp in Kilinochchi: Minister

Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala Thursday (20) told Parliament that investigations had found no evidence to substantiate claims by a man who recently alleged that an LTTE training camp had been discovered in Pallai, Kilinochchi.

Making a special statement, Wijepala identified the man as Sangeeth Jayasekara of Boralesgamuwa and said he had been arrested and remanded for 14 days.

The Minister said investigations had revealed that Jayasekara was in possession of two forged identity cards and had used seven different addresses. He was also named as a suspect in three criminal cases, including alleged fraud, and had falsely claimed to be a doctor, Wijepala said.

Authorities were also investigating his previous employment as a consultant attached to certain ministerial staff, he added.

Wijepala said the location identified by Jayasekara as an LTTE training camp had been inspected, but investigators found no evidence that it had been used for such a purpose. Instead, the site was identified as a cultivation area.

The Minister accused Jayasekara of deliberately misleading the public and attempting to create divisions among communities. He stressed that authorities had received no information indicating terrorist activity at the site.

Cabinet Spokesman Minister Nalinda Jayatissa had earlier said the location, in the Kannagipuram-Mukkanpam area of Kilinochchi, was situated on land gazetted as a forest reserve in 1919.

According to Jayatissa, the dispute relates to alleged illegal cultivation, construction and sand mining on State land and has already been the subject of several court cases.

He said forest authorities had received complaints of forest clearing and unauthorised construction at the site since 2025, while seven cases had been filed against a person identified as Thyagarasa Kuladeepan.

The government says the issue concerns alleged illegal occupation of State land and unauthorised development, rather than the operation of an LTTE training camp.