Lankan child claims to be reincarnation of former president

Wijeybahu, who is one year and ten months old, also vividly recollects the May Day’ carnage of 1993 when a Tamil youth, Babu, who used to work as domestic help in the house of Premadasa, blew himself up killing the president on the spot in north-central Colombo, Sri Lankan media claimed.

“When I was coming Babu came, there was loud explosion and I fell,” the boy told the visiting journalists this week.

Police investigations had revealed that Babu was an LTTE suicide bomber who had managed to infiltrate into Premadasa’s household.

The boy, born to a small farmer in the Central Nuwara Eliya district about four years after the Premadasa’s assassination in 1993, is able to tell the names of Premadasa’s family members, including his wife Hema.

According to claims made by the media, the boy resembles Premadasa in appearance and his photographs match with that of Premadasa when he was two years old.

The boy’s father, Ranasinghe Bandu, is said to have noticed his son’s strange behaviour when Sampath started waking up at 3 am daily to perform pansil, the Buddhist prayers. Reports say Premadasa also used to follow the same routine during his life time.

Interestingly, Sampath’s four-year-old elder sister has also started mumbling’ about her previous birth. She claims she was a student in central Kandy school who died of snake bite, reports have said.

Troubled over his children’s behaviour, Ranasinghe Bandu has approached the local Buddhist monk, Soma Thera, who is said to have attributed the phenomenon to extraordinary quality of parents genes’.

The monk, however, has given indications that the boy might have been misunderstood as it is his father who is interpreting whatever he is saying.

“It is possible that the words of such small child may not be very clear and thus misunderstood. I suggest that the boy be allowed to grow up without mixing much with others,” the monk was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, in Colombo the Premadasa family was inundated with calls from media and UNP party workers.

Sajith Premadasa, the late president’s son, has counselled restraint even while promising that the matter will be looked into’.