Wed, Mar 10, 2021, 10:14 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka
Mar 10, Colombo: A three-day parliamentary debate on the Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka commenced today (10) in parliament.
The report was taken up for debate as an adjournment motion tabled by the ruling party and the debate was held from 11:00 a.m. to 05.30 pm.
During the debate, Minister of Public Security Retired Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara revealed a number of details about the attack.
According to the Minister, so far 676 people have been arrested in connection with the 21 April 2019 Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka. Of these, 202 have been remanded, while another 66 are being detained and under investigation.
Although 408 people have been released on bail, investigations into them are still ongoing.
Investigations have revealed that although it was possible to prevent the attack easily, no proper action had been taken at that time.
There have been a number of incidents before the Easter attack, and investigations have revealed that the attack could have been prevented if the suspects had been properly investigated and arrested.
It has also been revealed that the perpetrators were able to carry out the attack due to the complete inactivation of the intelligence services and the demoralization of the military with the politicization of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)
Since the current government came to power, 99 people have been arrested in Sri Lanka for their direct and indirect involvement in the Easter attacks, while 35 Sri Lankans living abroad have been arrested and investigated.
The State Intelligence Service, in coordination with foreign intelligence agencies, has extradited 50 of the 54 suspects arrested in connection with the attacks in five foreign countries. The other four will be extradited as soon as the trials in those countries are over.
It has also been revealed that these individuals while feeding extremism from those countries have been sending money to Sri Lanka for extremist propaganda. According to local information and investigations, their involvement in the attack will be categorized and prosecuted. The State Intelligence Service has developed a system to liaise with the relevant intelligence services in Sri Lanka to monitor the activities of such expatriate Sri Lankans.
Under Saharan, 17 women have vowed to commit suicide attacks and five of them have died and three others have been remanded on charges. Seven others are in custody and investigations are underway to arrest the other two.
A Sri Lankan company has imported 1,440 swords from China in 2015. It was revealed that in 2018, under the direction of the Dematagoda Ibrahim Brothers, the company had sold the swords to various shops and bought the remaining 300 swords.
It has been revealed that the swords were given to people in Slave Island, Kattankudy and Beruwala areas. Twenty-seven swords have been manufactured in factories in Negombo and Kurunegala and 35 persons have been arrested in connection with the manufacturing while seven of them have been charged.
It has been revealed that all the money and material resources needed for the attack were provided by the Dulhami Inshaf brothers from their own businesses, as well as by extremist organizations abroad and pro-IS groups in the Middle East.
The detainees and the suicide bombers had maintained telephone contact through software such as Viber and WhatsApp.
The Minister of Public Security said steps will be taken to ban the burqa and madrassa schools soon and action will be taken to punish the perpetrators of the Easter attack according to the law.
He said the Parliament will be kept informed of the progress of the process as well as the measures to be taken by the government for the future security of the people.
The debate will continue on two other dates.
