Chamara Sampath Accuses India of 'Casting Out' IRIS Dena Crew

COLOMBO (News 1st); MP Chamara Sampath Dasanayake of the New Democratic Front has delivered a strongly worded statement in Parliament, alleging that the tragedy involving the IRIS Dena occurred because participants of a military exercise in India were abandoned after the event.

The MP said the situation had become a “bitter pill forced upon Sri Lanka,” and claimed that those on board the IRIS Dena had arrived in India on the 18th to take part in a multinational military exercise held in Visakhapatnam.

He said the exercise included participants from around the world, but accused the host nation of committing a “dirty act” to implicate Sri Lanka and drag the country into the crisis that followed.

According to Dasanayake, the individuals aboard the IRIS Dena were officially invited for the exercise, and once the event concluded and other international participants departed, they should have been sent out properly by the host country.

He alleged that instead, they were “cast out,” leaving them destitute and resulting in the vessel drifting toward Sri Lanka.

The MP described the incident as a “grave, dirty act,” stressing that no country should treat people in such a manner.

“This is essentially like bringing people in just to kill them. This is an extremely unjust act,” he said, condemning the manner in which the situation was handled.