President Ranil Wickremesinghe has appointed a committee to investigate allegations by British media, “Channel-4” related to the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.
According to the President’s Media Division (PMD), the Committee will be chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice S.I. Imam.
Retired Air Force Commander A.C.M. Jayalath Weerakkody & Harsha A.J. Soza PC are the other members of the Committee.
Publishing a video in September, ‘Channel 4’ said its dispatches have exclusive interviews with high-placed whistleblowers who allege that some Sri Lankan government officials were complicit in the bombings.
Among the whistleblowers in the video is Azad Maulana, the former spokesman of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), the political party of State Minister of Rural Road Development Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan.
Appearing in the ‘Channel 4’ video, Azad Maulana alleged that a meeting took place between Easter Sunday bomber Zahran Hashim and the head of the State Intelligence Service Suresh Sallay in the East, adding that he himself was present at the time of the meeting.
Following the release of the video, State Minister Pillayan denied any links to the Easter Sunday attacks or the bombers saying such allegations are baseless.
Meanwhile, His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, also called upon President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Sri Lankan government to initiate a comprehensive independent international investigation into the alleged plot behind the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.
Cardinal Ranjith emphasised the need for a “free, impartial, just, transparent, and broad” investigation, which he insists should be conducted by an independent international team.
A central allegation made in the Channel 4 Video is that the Easter Sunday suicide bombings had been deliberately facilitated in order to create the conditions to get former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa elected to power in November 2019.
Commenting on the allegations, Gotabaya Rajapaksa said the latest film by Chanel 4 is mostly an anti-Rajapaksa tirade aimed at blackening the Rajapaksa legacy from 2005 onwards and is a tissue of lies just like the previous films broadcast by the same Channel.
He further said that to claim that a group of Islamic extremists launched suicide attacks in order to make him President, is absurd. (NewsWire)
