Colombo, Apr 16 (PTI) The Sri Lankan government here on Wednesday lashed out at an opposition party member for siding with an arrested ex-Tamil militant turned politician.

Sivanaesathuarai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, the former chief minister of the Eastern province, has been detained for 90 days under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

The former state minister in the previous Rajapaksa-led governments was arrested on April 9 in connection with the 2006 abduction and disappearance of an academic from the eastern province.

Udaya Gammanpila, a former minister and a pro-Sinhala majority politician, on Wednesday told reporters the government was planning to frame Pillayan as the mastermind behind the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks that killed 270 people, including Indians.

Gammanpila said he met Pillayan earlier in the day as his legal counsel.

“These are conspiracies and not just normal incidents. Gammanpila’s appearance as his lawyer is revealing,” said Nalinda Jayathissa, the government spokesman and the minister of health.

“They are trying to make a jackal out of a hare,” Gammanpila said, alleging the government was planning to frame Pillayan as the mastermind of the bombings carried out by a local jihadi group with links to ISIS.

Gammanpila said Pillayan had been under detention from 2015 to 2020 and therefore was not responsible for the attack.

Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Ananda Wijepala told parliament last week that information on Pillayan’s links with the 2019 Easter Sunday attack had been unearthed since his detention on the academic’s abduction.

Gammanpila said Pillayan, to the contrary, contributed positively to the Sri Lankan military’s victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s three-decades-old separatist campaign.

Pillayan had broken away from the LTTE in 2004 and worked for the government troops in the war ending in 2009. PTI CORR PY PY PY