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Sri Lanka first purchased the Kfir jets from Israel in 1996, by which time the jet had been withdrawn from the Israeli Air Force but was being exported internationally. Kfir jets, the types that were flown by Pathirana have been extensively used by the Sri Lankan Air Force to carry out bombing raids across the North-East, and have killed thousands of Tamils throughout the years. Despite the heavy militarisation of the North-East, it has become apparent that drug use is becoming more frequent, with civil society groups claiming that the rise in drugs across the North-East is being facilitated by the Sri Lankan state.įile photograph: Tamil children shelter in a bunker during a Sri Lankan airstrike

Since the end of the armed conflict drug use has become rampant across the North-East. In increasingly frequent cases, police officers have been linked to the narcotics trade, with former politicians claiming a drug kingpin was murdered to protect the identity of 80 politicians complicit in drug trafficking. The plane which is used for maritime surveillance is said to assist the Sri Lankan Navy in combating “transnational crimes including human smuggling as well as drug trafficking”, the DailyMirror reports. Textron Aviation which has been awarded a USD $11 million contract by the US government will produce two Beechcraft King Air 360ER to replace an earlier model used by the SLAF. Tamil activists have labelled many of those attacks war crimes.Īccused war criminals Gotabaya Rajapaksa (L) Sudarshana Pathirana (R) Pathirana frequently flew Kfir C2 / C7, the jets were synonymous with the targeting of Tamil civilians and non-military targets and with Pathirana accumulating more than 3,500 flying hours, he would have likely participated in the bombing raids. Pathirana joined the SLAF in 1985, and was a part of the f irst batch of pilots to fly supersonic jets in Sri Lanka. He then went on to command the No 5 Fighter squadron and the infamous No 10 Fighter squadron, which was formed in 1996 and consisted of Kfir jets. The delivery of planes which is said to be completed by 2022 to 2023, was made based on the request from the Commander of the Sri Lankan Air Force, Sudarshana Pathirana according to a report in the Daily Mirror. Despite ongoing human rights abuses, the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) will receive two military aircraft from the United States at no cost through a Foreign Military Sales contract, following a request made by the commander of the Sri Lankan airforce.