By Skandha Gunasekara The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) probing the Easter Sunday attacks was told last week that a swift resolution of the incidents in Mawanella in 2018 could have led to the arrest of the group involved in last year’s terror attacks and prevented the bombings from ever occurring. Last week’s key witness was the (Rtd.) Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the Kegalle District at the time the Buddhist statues in the Mawanella region were desecrated in December 2018, Palitha Siriwardana, who oversaw the subsequent investigations. Siriwardana said the Kegalle Police had immediately commenced investigations following the first attack on statues on 23 December 2018 and that the Assistant Superintendent (ASP) in charge of the Mawanella Precinct, ASP Gamini Tennakoon, had been placed in charge of the investigations. Corroborating with other witnesses before him, he said that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had also taken part in the investigations, but revealed that the involvement of the CID had been hidden from him for a period of time. He said that he had been unaware on the day the then CID Director Shani Abeysekara had arrived in Mawanella and that he was only informed of his arrival on a later date, while the Inspector General of Police (IGP) had only informed ASP Tennakoon of the CIDs arrival. “The first I heard of the CID’s involvement was when they made a submission at the Kegalle Magistrate’s Court. Neither the IGP nor the CID Chief informed me. This was very unusual,” he said. He said that following the CID’s arrival, ASP Tennakoon had proposed that the investigation on the side of the local Police be taken over by ASP Kamal Perera. Below is the exchange that followed between the PCoI bench and Siriwardana. Bench: Is it a normal practice that the local police continue investigations into a matter when the CID had taken over investigations on the same? Siriwardana: The Kegalle Police were conducting investigations into future possible attacks in the area to ensure that no communal unrest occurs. Bench: The question was if it was normal procedure for the local police to be involved at the same time the CID is heading an investigation. Siriwardana: No, only if the CID makes a request for the local police to be involved. Bench: Did they make such a request? Siriwardana: No. Siriwardana went on to say that political interference had hampered the investigations at the time to a great degree, and that the CID’s involvement was a sign of the interference. Siriwardana: The fact that the DIG in charge of the district was kept in the dark while an ASP was informed is quite suspicious. It is standard procedure for the IGP to inform the DIG in charge of the district. Bench: When the CID Chief came to Mawanella, did he not come meet you? Siriwardana: No, he did not. He had gone and met with the officer in charge of the investigation at the time, ASP Kamal Perera Bench: You are the DIG in charge of the Kegalle District. He is the Chief of the CID. Why did he avoid meeting you? Is there some personal dispute between the two of you? Siriwardana: I have no qualms with the CID Chief but I cannot speak for him. Political influence He went on to say that the involvement of former Western Province Governor Azath Salley had greatly affected the investigations. He said that the IGP had notified that Salley would facilitate the surrender of the two main suspects in the Mawanella incidents through a local Muslim religious leader (maulavi). But Salley had failed to do so, Siriwardana said. Consequently, the Kegalle Police had been reluctant to proceed as they were apprehensive of Salley’s influence over the investigations. “Salley was very close to then President Maithripala Sirisena. In fact, he was appointed the Western Province Governor soon after. We wanted to take the investigations in several other directions including looking into Salley and his connections to the suspect, but all my officers were afraid of political revenge,” he said, adding that he did not want to compel his officers to conduct investigations that could result in ending their police careers. However, he went on to say that the investigations up until the involvement of Salley had uncovered that the mastermind of the Easter attacks and Leader of the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), Zahran Hashim, was connected to the Mawanella incidents. He said that on 31 December 2018, Police Inspector Chamika Wickremesinghe had made a request to go to Kathtthankudy as an individual involved in the Mawanella case was residing there. However, he said that the Police had been unable to arrest Zahran as the local Grama Sevaka had informed them that Zahran had fled the region after an altercation in 2017. “Had the Police, CID, and Special Task Force (STF) been properly co-ordinated and mobilised at the time of the Mawanella incident, Zahran Hashim and his group could have been arrested at that point and the Easter attacks could have been prevented. “In fact, soon after the attacks, Zahran and his entire network was uncovered and caught or eliminated within the short period of just two weeks,” Siriwardana said. Furthermore, he went on to say that it wasn’t only the IGP and the Secretary of Defence that should be held responsible for failing to prevent the attacks. Senior officers’ inaction detrimental He said that apart from these, other senior police officials and intelligence officers including the Head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) had not taken affective measures to act on the early warnings. “A number of senior DIGs and DIGs were given the same intelligence received from India’s intelligence unit – Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) – that was also received by the IGP. Even the SIS Chief had got it, but none of them acted upon the intelligence and warning,” Siriwardana said. He said that India’s RAW intelligence report had warned of an imminent attack on multiple churches as well as the Indian High Commission. “Had the DIG in charge of the Katuwapitiya area taken the initiative and placed even two uniformed officers at the entrance of the Katuwapitiya (St. Sebastian’s) Church, it would have deterred the bombers. But instead, we saw on CCTV footage later, how easily the bombers entered and carried out the attack,” he said, adding that all these high-ranking officers should be held accountable. Speaking further on political interference, he said that while these senior officials had been transferred out of their posts following the Easter attacks so as to ensure they did not influence subsequent investigations, they had all been reinstated to those same precincts. “For example, the Katuwapitiya DIG was transferred out soon after the attacks. But now, he has been reinstated and even given a promotion. This is the kind of political interference that is ruining the Police,” he said. Finally, he added that the intelligence officers at police precincts were severely undertrained and inexperienced. “According to the circular that is in effect, the officer-in-charge (OIC) of a police station must choose police officers to be the intelligence officers of that police station. Those officers are not given any intelligence training and have no real idea on intelligence gathering or analysis,” Siriwardana said.