The bells of St. Anthony’s Shrine and St. Sebastian’s Church toll not just in memory of the fallen, but as a reminder of a State that has failed its most fundamental duty. Seven years have vanished since the Easter Sunday carnage of 2019, yet the quest for the ‘Grand Conspiracy’ remains trapped in a labyrinth of commissions, classified files, and convenient postponements. For the survivors and the families of the 269 victims, the passage of time has not brought healing. Instead, it has offered a front-row seat to a masterclass in institutional foot-dragging.
The primary question that must be put to the current administration and its predecessors is simple: why does the truth remain so elusive? We have seen a dizzying array of investigative bodies. There was the Malalgoda Committee, followed by the Parliamentary Select Committee, and then the exhaustive Presidential Commission of Inquiry which recorded evidence from hundreds of witnesses. Thousands of pages of testimony exist, yet the public is fed only fragments. When a state spends years debating which parts of a report are “too sensitive” for public consumption, it is not protecting national security; it is protecting individuals.
The legal landscape has been equally underwhelming. While the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment in 2023, holding former President Maithripala Sirisena and his top security apparatus personally liable for failing to prevent the attacks, the victory remains largely symbolic. Civil compensation, while necessary, is not a substitute for criminal accountability. The fact remains that top officials, including a former Defence Secretary and an Inspector General of Police, were acquitted in criminal proceedings. This creates a dangerous precedent where gross negligence resulting in mass death is treated as a bureaucratic lapse rather than a criminal betrayal of the public trust.
Is the current stagnation a result of a genuine lack of evidence or a calculated lack of political will? In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, national security became the rallying cry for a new political era. Yet, once the seats of power were secured, the urgency to find the architects of the plot seemed to dissipate into thin air. We must consider the possibility that the investigation is not dragging due to incompetence, but rather because the threads of the conspiracy may lead into the very corridors of power that are tasked with the investigation.
The recent arrest of intelligence figures and the ongoing reshuffling of investigators often appear more like performative justice than a pursuit of the truth. Each new Government promises a fresh probe, yet each probe seems to stop exactly where the previous one did. This cycle of hope and disappointment suggests a systemic resistance to transparency. If the State is truly committed to justice, why has it taken seven years to even begin questioning the higher echelons of the intelligence community with any degree of rigour?
The role of the Catholic Church, led by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, has been the only consistent catalyst for action. Their refusal to let the issue die has forced the State’s hand on multiple occasions. However, it should not be the responsibility of the clergy or the bereaved to hunt for the perpetrators. That is the sole mandate of the police and the judiciary. When the Church expresses guarded hope in current proceedings, it is a polite way of saying they have been lied to so many times that they can no longer take any Government at its word.
As we look toward the future, the credibility of Sri Lanka’s justice system hangs in the balance. This is no longer just about the tragedy of 2019. It is about whether the Sri Lankan State is capable of holding its own accountable. If the ‘Mastermind’ remains a ghost and the facilitators remain protected by the shadows of official secrecy, then the message sent to the world is clear: in Sri Lanka, political expediency outweighs the lives of its citizens.
The time for commissions and committees has passed. The public does not need more reports; it needs indictments that hold water and trials that reach conclusions. Seven years is an eternity for those who lost their children, parents, and spouses. If the current leadership cannot provide definitive answers, they must admit that the system is either too broken to function or too compromised to care. Justice delayed is not just justice denied; in the case of the Easter Sunday attacks, it is a continuing crime against the soul of the Nation.