Sri Lanka leader says he will uncover the truth of the 2019 Easter attack

28.09.2024 08:21

Crux

MUMBAI, India – President Anura Kumara Dissanayake says he will do his utmost to uncover the truth on the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks through a fresh probe.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, told journalists that the new president gave this assurance when he called on him on Monday after swearing in as the new president of Sri Lanka.

“The new President told us that he would do his utmost to find the truth about the Easter Sunday bomb attacks,” Ranjith said.

“The people have voted in the NPP [the ruling party] to bring about a big change. This is a difficult task. We fully support him and invoke our blessings on the new President and his administration to bring about this change which the people wanted,” the cardinal continued.

On April 21, 2019, which was Easter Sunday, three churches and three luxury hotels were bombed in a series of coordinated attacks that left over 200 people dead. ISIS spokespersons would later claim responsibility for the bombings, saying the targets had been Christians and citizens of countries involved in the anti-ISIS coalition.

Hotels hit by explosions included the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels and one other, all in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital. The three churches struck were the Catholic Shrine of St. Anthony in Kotahena, Colombo, the Catholic Church of St. Sebastian in Negombo and the Zion Church in Batticaloa. At least 45 foreign nationals were among the dead.

Though the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, with the lesser-known jihadist group National Thowheed Jamaath, it soon emerged that Sri Lankan intelligence services had been alerted that an attack was in the works, both by domestic sources and also tips from India’s intelligence service.

That information included the identity of the main perpetrator of the attacks and that both hotels and churches were likely to be targeted, yet no additional security measures were adopted.

The Head of the Communications Committee of the Archdiocese of Colombo, Father Cyril Gamini Fernando, said the church wants the new president to conduct a fresh probe to determine the truth behind the Easter Sunday attacks, including why warnings were ignored and who masterminded the massacre.

“We also expect that the new government will take action based on the findings of the new probe. However, we understand that these matters may be implemented only after the general election,” he told the Daily Mirror.

“The people of Sri Lanka have taken an initiative for a change. They indicated that they want a new government which does things differently. Mr. Dissanayake and the new administration should understand this fact,” Fernando said.

“We believe that the new administration will do things differently. If not the new regime will have to face the same consequences which the government of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa faced in 2022,” he added.

Dissanayake appointed Ravi Seneviratne, a former senior security chief who headed the notorious Criminal Investigation Department (CID), as Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security.

Seneviratne joined the ranks of the National People’s Power, to head the party’s retired police collective. At the time, he said his decision to join the NPP was driven by a desire to restore the rule of law in the country, which he said deteriorated significantly in recent times.

Seneviratne previously claimed that Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government “prevented the investigation” into the Easter Sunday attacks and that a travel ban was imposed on more than 700 CID officers in a bid to intimidate investigators.

On Friday, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court started contempt of court proceedings against former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena for failing to pay the full compensation owed to the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks.