COLOMBO (TIP): Sri Lanka’s government will appoint a parliamentary committee to investigate allegations made in a British television report that Sri Lankan intelligence had complicity in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people. Labor Minister Manusha Nanayakkara told Parliament on September 5 that details on the investigation will be announced soon.
A man interviewed in the Channel 4 videos released Tuesday said he arranged a meeting between a local Islamic State-inspired group and a top state intelligence official to hatch a plot to create insecurity in Sri Lanka and enable Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the presidential election later that year.
Azad Maulana was a spokesman for a breakaway group of the Tamil Tiger rebels that later became a pro-state militia and helped the government defeat the rebels and win Sri Lanka’s long civil war in 2009.
Rajapaksa was a top defence official during the war, and his older brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, had been defeated in the 2015 elections after 10 years in power.
A group of Sri Lankans inspired by the Islamic State group carried out the six near-simultaneous suicide bombings in churches and tourist hotels on April 21, 2019.
The attacks killed 269 people, including worshippers at Easter Sunday services, locals and foreign tourists, and revived memories of frequent bombings during the quarter-century war. Fears over national security enabled Rajapaksa to sweep to power. He was forced to resign last year after mass protests over the country’s worst economic crisis.
In the Channel 4 program, Maulana said he arranged a meeting in 2018 between IS-inspired extremists and a top intelligence officer at the behest of his boss at the time, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, the leader of the rebel splinter group-turned-political party.
Maulana said Chandrakanthan had met the group in prison while in detention on allegations of murder and found they could be useful in creating insecurity in the country.
Maulana told Channel 4 that he himself did not participate in the meeting but that the intelligence officer told him later that creating insecurity was the only way to return the Rajapaksa family to power.
After security camera footage of the bombings was released, Maulana recognized the faces of the attackers carrying bomb-laden backpacks as those whom he had arranged to meet with the intelligence officer, Maulana said in the program. Channel 4 reported that Maulana had been interviewed by UN investigators and European intelligence services over his claims.
(Associated Press)
Tag: Rajapaksa
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Sri Lanka to investigate allegations linking Rajapaksa-backed officials to 2019 Easter bombings
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SBI to give $1-billion loan to Sri Lanka for food, medicine and other essential items
Colombo/New Delhi (TIP): The State Bank of India on March 17 signed an agreement for extending a credit line of $1 billion to Sri Lanka enabling it to buy food, medicine and other essential items. The agreement was signed after Union Ministers S Jaishankar and NirmalaSitharaman held discussions on economic cooperation and “issues of mutual interest’’ with Sri Lanka Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, said an official news release. Basil Rajapaksa visited India for financial assistance which will temporarily enable the cash-strapped Sri Lanka to stave off an unprecedented economic crisis.
On the eve of his visit, Colombo sent a positive signal by signing a joint venture with India three days back for a 100 mw solar power plant at Sampur in Trincomalee to compensate for the scrapping of an Indo-Japan coal power project on environmental grounds. On the security side, Colombo last week hosted another conference of NSAs of regional countries for a collective approach to maritime security.
In January, India had bailed out Sri Lanka from its balance of payments difficulties by extending a $400 million swap facility and deferring the settlement of $515.2 million. Thus, the help extended by India is worth over $900 million and about $1.5 billion more is in the pipeline.
Basil Rajapaksa had met PM NarendraModi for the assistance provided to Sri Lanka at this critical time. The two leaders discussed a wide range of issues pertaining to the bilateral relationship. These included agriculture, renewable energy, digitalisation, tourism and fisheries among others, said a release from the Sri Lanka High Commission.
Basil Rajapaksa also held talks with Jaishankar the same evening, which were followed by a working dinner. Rajapaksa was accompanied to the meeting by Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India MilindaMoragoda, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance S.R. Attygalle and Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner to India NilukaKadurugamuwa. (TNS)