[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2014, 23:14 GMT]Two UK-based websites have been subjected to DDoS attacks and
vulnerability exploitation attempts on Tuesday, following their news
stories exposing the Rajapaksa connections of a Diaspora Tamil-owned
multinational business establishment, Lyca Mobiles group, and a recent
media twist on an incident that took place in Colombo airport involving
the group, said the editors of Inioru.com and Lankanewsweb.com to
TamilNet on Wednesday.
Earlier, a Lyca-owned Tamil media gave an image-manipulation twist
stating that the owner of the multinational group, Subaskaran Allirajah,
was arrested in Colombo. The intention behind the news was to influence
the people of Tamil Nadu with a story telling that the Lyca owner was
subjected to investigation by the Rajapaksa establishment in Colombo and
thus there was no nexus between the owner and the Rajapaksa
establishment as the protesters in Tamil Nadu had alleged. The Lyca
twist was also disseminated by a number of Tamil-language websites
either having sponsorship influence from the business group or that
suffer from copy-paste reporting syndrome.
The current
controversy started with Lyca producing a Tamil movie called “Kaththi”
in Tamil Nadu and students in Tamil Nadu protesting the release of the
movie produced by Lyca having Rajapaksa connections.
After
successful protests by the Tamil Nadu students amidst arrests and
harassments, the film was released in Tamil Nadu only after deleting the
name of the producer and the tag Lyca Productions.
Later, the
news came that the Lyca chief was arrested and investigated in Colombo,
while transiting on his way to London from the Maldives.
However,
within a few days, the real story broke out and Inioru.com and
Lankanewsweb.com were writing investigative pieces on what seemed to
have transpired at the Colombo airport, when the Lyca group was
returning after having a party in the Maldives with a group of people
involved in the production of the box office hit film.
The group
of more than 80 persons had their festivities at an Indian hotel-chain
run tourist resort in the Maldives. A part of the group returned to
India. But the other part of the partying group, including the owner of
Lyca, got into a controversy with the pilot and the crew, and the group
was ordered to leave the aircraft at Colombo.
“We have been
following the political involvement of the multinational corporate since
2008 when Sunday Leader, then edited by the late Lasantha
Wickramatunga, exposed a scandal involving the nexus between the mobile
business group and Rajapaksa family,” said UK-based Saba Navalan, the
editor of Tamil-language website Inioru.com.
Especially, when
Tamil activists found out that the Lyca Mobile group was a significant
sponsor of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in
Colombo, the scrutiny became a necessity, Mr Navalan added.
Lyca’s
conspicuously emphasized usage of ‘Sri Lanka’ in its post-war media
advertisements has also raised eyebrows among Tamils, when the term
introduced in 1972 and the genocidal State concept behind the term were
long rejected by them.
Inioru was targeted with DDoS attacks and
virus attacks that attempted to exploit the vulnerabilities of the word
press publishing system.
The editor of Lankanewsweb.com, Chandima Withana, an exiled Sinhalese based in UK, also gave a similar account.
Chandima
Withana had published a piece on 02 November with the title ‘Secret of
Lyca Mobile owner suddenly becoming anti-Rajapaksa!’ The piece was also
translated to Tamil and published by Lankanewsweb. The site is now
having its stories in its Facebook page.
In the meantime, Inioru editor Navalan said he was deploying the site with DDoS protection to resume the operation.
Meanwhile,
on 23 October, the Police in Tamil Nadu, under ‘influence’ to suppress
the student protests, had detained three student leaders in Tamil Nadu,
Chempiyan, Prabhakaran and Piratheep. Several other students and
Periayar Dravidar Kazhakaam activists also faced the harassment by the
police.
The protests by the students caused an impact, despite
the stand taken by Tamil activists coming from the cinema industry in
favour of their influential sponsor from London.
The New Delhi
Establishment adopting the ‘genocidal route’ and Rajapaksa-supporting
route for its entry into the island and the Establishment’s arrogant
disregard for public opinion have intensified sensitivity in Tamil Nadu
for anything coming with Rajapaksa connections. The students in Tamil
Nadu admiringly show vigilance necessary for a righteous struggle,
commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in Eezham.
