• Sajith seeks probes on ‘Abu Hind’, Suresh Sallay, ‘Colonel Ansar', Assad Moulana, Ajith Dharmapala

 The main Parliamentary Opposition Party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), queried about the actions taken against certain officers in the State Intelligence Service (SIS), who, in certain instances, allegedly blocked the investigations conducted by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) into the Easter Sunday attacks that took place in 2019.

Speaking in the Parliament yesterday (24), during the three-day adjournment debate on the Easter Sunday attacks which commenced yesterday, SJB and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa claimed that the authorities have disregarded information revealed about certain crucial incidents and individuals who are allegedly linked with the attacks when carrying out the investigations, even though the Government claims that 99% of the investigations are concluded. Stating that no investigation reveals information about an individual named ‘Abu Hind’ who is considered to be the mastermind behind the attacks, Premadasa questioned as to why no investigation has been carried out into the particular person. 

He also noted that a statement given by ‘Haadiya’, who is the wife of ‘Zahran Hashim’, the latter being the leader of the terrorist group that launched the attacks, clearly says that ‘Zahran’ received calls from the person named ‘Abu Hind’, who has, according to her, a local Tamil accent. Therefore, he queried the Government over the lack of investigations carried out against that person. 

He claimed that the SIS has not worked with the CID to carry out the investigations properly, but had instead reportedly blocked certain measures taken by the CID in this regard. Posing a series of questions to the Government, Premadasa claimed that the Government has not taken enough measures to investigate the alleged links between the terrorists and certain officials in the SIS. He further claimed that either the Chief of the SIS, Major General Suresh Sallay, or a person called ‘Colonel Ansar’ have allegedly had connections with a suicide bomber, as claimed by Assad Moulana, whose testimony in the Channel 4 documentary became controversial recently, and Ajith Dharmapala, who is a Sri Lankan Police officer living abroad. Premadasa claimed that no investigation was carried out to verify the allegations made by the aforementioned duo.

Moreover, he stated that the SJB is no longer demanding justice for the victims of the attacks from this Government, adding that a special investigation will be launched by a future SJB-led Government to bring justice to all the victims.

The Easter Sunday attacks on 21 April 2019, targeting churches and hotels, claimed lives in the triple digit range including of foreigners.