Gotabaya Denies Allegations Surrounding Easter Sunday Attacks

COLOMBO (News 1st); Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a statement on Thursday (25) stressed that the Easter Sunday attacks were perpetrated by a group of Islamic extremists, and that the highest investigative arm of the then government - the CID - had for several months prior to the attacks, been investigating the activities of the very same individuals and groups that carried out the suicide bombings but failed to apprehend the terrorists before they struck.

The Former President issued the statement in response to the allegations made against him by His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith at an event held to mark the fifth anniversary of the Easter Sunday suicide bombings.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa categorically stated that he did NOT speak to the Cardinal over the phone after the Presidential Commission report was submitted, and tell that the recommendations of the Presidential Commission could not be implemented because that would entail the arrest of people and even the banning of organisations allied with him.

He also said that it is a well-known fact that the Muslim community in general did not vote for him or support his candidacy at the Presidential election.

Rajapkasa said that therefore, he cannot possibly have had any allies in any organisation that would need to be banned over complicity in the Easter Sunday attacks.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa also rejects the allegation that he transferred the CID Director and even placed him in remand custody in order to sabotage the Easter Sunday investigation.

He said that the then Director of the CID was transferred by the Police Commission.

Rajapaksa said that this particular CID Director had been appointed to that office in 2017 and in the months prior to the Easter Sunday attacks, it was the CID that investigated the Vavunativu murders, the vandalizing of Buddha statues in Mawanella and the discovery of explosives in Wanathavilluwa involving the very same individuals and groups that perpetrated the Easter Sunday attacks.

He said that the Presidential Commission has observed that if the law enforcement authorities had been more vigilant, Zaharan and his group could have been apprehended before the Easter Sunday attacks took place, and the failure to prevent the attack was a failure of the CID under that Director.

The statement added that public should take good note of the fact that His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith either glosses over the responsibility of, or expressly absolves the two parties mentioned above, while continuing to relentlessly attack and criticize Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the Easter Sunday suicide bombings.