The Revolt
The discovery of several JVP bomb factories gave the government its first evidence that the group's public threats were to be taken seriously. In March 1971, after an accidental explosion in one of these factories, the police found 58 bombs in a hut in Nelundeniya, Kegalla District. Shortly afterward Wijeweera was arrested and sent to Jaffna Prison, where he remained throughout the revolt. In response to his arrest and the growing pressure of police investigations, other JVP leaders decided to act immediately, and they agreed to begin the uprising at 11:00 P.M. on April 5.
The planning for the countrywide insurrection was hasty and poorly coordinated; some of the district leaders were not informed until the morning of the uprising. After a premature attack, security forces throughout the island were put on alert and a number of JVP leaders went into hiding without bothering to inform their subordinates of the changed circumstances. In spite of this confusion, rebel groups armed with shotguns, bombs and Molotov cocktails launched simultaneous attacks against 74 police stations around the island and cut power to major urban areas. The attacks were most successful in the south. By April 10 the rebels had taken control of Matara District and the city of Ambalangoda in Galle District, and came close to capturing the remaining areas of Southern Province.
Read more about this topic: 1971 JVP Insurrection
Famous quotes containing the word revolt:
“this winter’s revolt of the unbellied trees
one reason being they’re all gnarled knees”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It’s a remarkably shrewed and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks of it.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)