25 October 2024 09:27 am Views - 41
By Yohan Perera
Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe today dismissed allegations made by Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith that the motives behind the committees to probe the action of intelligence units in lead up to the Easter Sunday attacks was to politically victimize officers Ravi Seneviratne and Shani Abeysekera.
Issuing a special statement in this regard Mr. Wickremesinghe said the committees which were appointed to probe the action taken by Sri Lanka intelligence services has not held Seneviratne and Abeysekera responsible for negligence alone but a number of other officers as well.
“Seneviratne and Abeysekera are not the only officers who have been held responsible by the committees as it had held others responsible as well. The committees have held former IGP Pujith Jayasundara, Senior DIGs Nilantha Jayawardena, Nandana Munasinghe, Lalith Pathinayake, Abdul Lathif and former IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon responsible for negligence. The committees have recommended disciplinary action against these officers,” he said.
“Therefore, the probe was not aimed at victimizing Abeysekera or Seneviratne,” he added.
“The committees have revealed that lack of network among the intelligence units to elicit the intelligence led to ignore the warnings. They have also revealed that there has been serious drawbacks where the intelligence units are concerned,” he said quoting the report of the commission appointed to look into action on the part of intelligence services.
Also, he said he did not want to publish the reports of the two committees as he did not want to draw Easter Sunday attacks into politics during the Presidential election.
“Comments expressed by the Cardinal are baseless and it is the Catholic Bishops’ Conference which should come up with its stance on the reports. No one should play politics using the Easter Sunday attacks and the probe reports,” he also said.