Blog Archives

61st Death Anniversary (1959 – 2020) The Assassination of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike An Anecdotal Reflection-by Senaka Weeraratna Source:Lankaweb It was a Friday fifty six years ago to be exact on September 25, 1959 at around 10.30 a.m. in the morning when I was in the class room listening to Mr. H.P. Jayawardena’s English lesson in our final year at Royal Primary School, that my eye caught a movement in the corridor adjoining the class. When I looked sideways to my left I saw young Anura Bandaranaike being accompanied by his Ayah leaving the premises. In that relatively quiet moment my class mates too saw Anura being led away but none was able to second guess the reason. It was during the lunch hour that we got the distressing news that Anura’s father Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, then Prime Minister of Ceylon, had been shot. Amidst a variety of reports streaming in of ...