‘Ape Jana Bala’ leader among five shot dead

Leader of the ‘Ape Jana Bala’ (Our People’s Force) party Saman Perera was among five people shot dead in the southern town of Beliatta, media reports said citing police.

Police Spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa had told the media that the five individuals, who had been traveling in a Land Rover Defender, had stopped for breakfast at a roadside eatery near the Beliatta interchange of the Southern Expressway when they were shot.

The Defender, which had come from Colombo, had exited the expressway from the interchange. Media reports citing SSP Thalduwa said an unidentified person who had arrived in a pickup truck just behind the Defender had opened fire on the driver of the Defender as he was getting out of the vehicle and subsequently shot the passengers.

One of the victims was the leader of the Ape Jana Bala party, which was at the center of a controversy following the 2020 parliamentary elections.