By IANS
Colombo : Employees of the Sri Lanka government-owned television station Rupavahini Thursday held Labour Minister Mervyn Silva hostage after he allegedly assaulted the director of news for not featuring him in a telecast.
Silva, a non-cabinet minister, turned violent after he was blanked out of a programme on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tsunami anniversary function held in Matara in southern Sri Lanka Wednesday, the employees said.
Silva has been a long-standing political bigwig in Matara district and had given a speech at the function.
After the alleged assault, thousands of furious employees of the TV station converged on Silva, who took shelter in the room of Rupavahini’s chairman.
They would not let him come out despite appeals by Media Minister Lakshman Yapa. They threatened to assault Silva if he came out. They demanded that he be handcuffed.
The police were passive onlookers as the siege continued. Eventually, they handcuffed one of Silva’s bodyguards from the ministerial security division. The mob harangued the guard, who was in tears, for using force earlier.
President Rajapaksa did not take any action to defuse the situation, which was shown live on Rupavahini for hours.
Silva had earlier got into a scrap with the Tamil owned Maharaja TV (MTV) and demanded that the Tamils of Sri Lanka be repatriated to their “homes in India”.