14 October 2020 04:32 pm Views - 3008
No appropriate analysis was conducted over the threats related to National Security at the time of Easter Sunday coordinated terror attacks, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday told the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks.
Testifying before the Commission, former Premier admitted that the security situation in the country was deteriorating at the time of the Easter Sunday terror attacks on April 21, 2019.
Responding to a question raised by the representative from the Attorney General's (AG) Department, Mr. Wickremesinghe said that Muslim ministers who served at the previous government had informed about the extremist activities occurred in the Eastern Province.
"After gunshots fired at former Minister Kabir Hashim's Coordinating Secretary Mohammed Naslim in March 2019 and several other incidents, the Muslim ministers started focusing their attention to Islamic extremist practices in the country," he said.
During the testimony, former Premier informed that Muslim ministers and the their political parties were well aware about the situation in the Eastern Province and they alerted the government on extremists' activities.
The AG's Department official also questioned the witness on receiving a CD which contained a speech delivered by Zahran Hashim to former Premier's spouse Prof. Maithree Wickremesinghe in February, 2018.
"Yes, she had received a CD which had Zahran Hashim's speech and we gave it to former Minister Rauff Hakeem, who explained to us what was in the CD. By that time only we knew who Zahran Hashim was, but couldn't trace his whereabouts," he said.
The Former Prime Minister further added that if he had received the confirmed foreign intelligence alert with regards to the possible terror attack early, he would have called Cabinet ministers, former IGP and the Intelligence unit to act on the intelligence alert swiftly in order to prevent the attack. But it has been received on April 20, 2019.
He also added that he would have called the Indian High Commissioner to verify the facts mentioned in the said foreign intelligence report. (Yoshitha Perera)