“Around three hundred people surrounded us and started assaulting me. My driver was beaten up. My PSO covered me pleading with the mob to stop attacking me, but he was dragged and thrown aside. They kept on assaulting me with clubs and batons,” said Kumara Welgama, Member of Parliament (MP) from Kalutara.

Recalling the assault that Welgama had undergone on May 9, Welgama spoke in Parliament on Wednesday, July 27 on how the assault unfolded that left him critically injured May 9.

The opposition MP said that his vehicle was intercepted by an unidentified motorcyclist at the Makumbura Highway Interchange.

Welgama said that some individuals in the mob recognized him and raised their voices to stop the attack.

“Someone said that I was the first man to speak up against Gotabaya but the others did not listen to him and claimed I belonged to the 225 and hence I had to be killed,” said He.

“They went on to burn the vehicle with me trapped inside. They pulled me out, undressed me, and dragged me to the pavement in my underwear,” He added.

According to Welgama, his life was only spared because of a youth who hailed from the same electorate as Welgama’s. It was the young individual who had recognized him and intervened to save his life by rushing him to the hospital in a three-wheeler, claimed Welgama.

While strongly condemning the attack, he requested to forgive those involved. Welgama alleged that the Aragalaya initially started with ‘decent people’ but then was influenced by ‘terrorist leaders’ in due course.

Welgama indirectly endorsed President Ranil Wickremesinghe by claiming that Sri Lanka needed a leader who is capable of taking control of the situation.

“Dullas is a very good friend of mine, but we would have been ruled by terrorist leaders if they were in power,” said He.