Sri Lanka's Daily FT business daily said the call was contained in a note to clients by Capital Trust, a stockbroking firm.
The note had said a war against "saboteurs, traitors and subversive elements," is continuing and that the government's "noble goal of making our motherland the 'Financial Hub of South Asia' and the 'Economic Miracle of Asia' will remain as empty slogans unless these disruptive elements who are 'perched comfortably on the horns and devouring up the ears' are identified immediately and eliminated early."
The newspaper said some of the recipients of the emailed note were "furious over the call for the elimination of so called 'traitors' who criticise the Government's economic management in general,". Dissent is a natural part of a true democracy, the report pointed out.
There have been increasing questions raised whether over the last four decades Sri Lanka has changed from a democracy to a country where impunity and arbitrary rule reign rather than rule of law.
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