February 2, 2010 9:09 PM

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Rajapakasa may send 14 senior army officer on compulsory leave

As a fall out of the alleged coup attempt by the defeated candidate in the Sri Lanka Presidential election retired General Sarath Fonseka, the re-elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa is likely to send on compulsory retirement at least 14 senior serving military officers including five holding the rank of Major General and two Brigadiers.<br/><br/>The officers are being sent on ‘retirement’ on the basis of ‘their service no longer required’ in the Army but observers are of the opinion that they are being asked to retire because of their alleged ‘political conspiracies’ with the defeated Presidential candidate , Sarath Fonseka against the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa.<br/><br/>In the first official acknowledgement of the largest ever military purge the Director General of Media Centre of National Security , Lakshman Hullugalle in a press statement said the officers that are being asked to pack up and leave as they considered "direct threat to national security" after last week's presidential election.<br/><br/>Hours after the counting started on January 26, the retired General moved into a local hotel citing security reasons. Three days later the Government charged him of attempting a coup against the President.<br/><br/>At a news conference on Saturday the defeated Presidential candidate strongly refuted the allegation leveled against him. However, at the same time he conceded that a number of officers in the military were giving him inside information during his campaign.<br/><br/>The episode involving the top echelons of the Sri Lanka military has strengthened apprehensions among a section of the political and diplomatic community that with the entry of former Army Chief into the Presidential race, the military has been politicised like never before.<br/><br/>As per a military official it would be the army's biggest-ever purge and went beyond a 1962 operation in the aftermath of a coup attempt by volunteer officers against the then prime minister Sirima Bandaranaike.

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