Channel 4 allegations Govt. calls for constrained response

Sees it as work of drama ahead of UNHRC session 

The response to Channel 4 by Head of State Intelligence Service Suresh Sallay  

• The Channel 4 dispatches implicates that the Easter Sunday bombings which killed 269 people in 2019 were part of a grand plot to bring back the Rajapaksas to power
• only those implicated in allegations should respond but not the government as a whole

By Kelum Bandara 

The government views the latest Channel 4 film as a work of drama ahead of the session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and therefore advocates a constrained response to the allegations raised in it regarding the Easter Sunday attack, Daily Mirror learns.  

The Channel 4 dispatches implicates that the Easter Sunday bombings which killed 269 people in 2019 were part of a grand plot to bring back the Rajapaksas to power. 

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is reported to have told the Cabinet the Channel 4 had timed it ahead of the UNHRC session as usual and therefore the government should not hastily take action, Instead, he is reported to have said that only those implicated in allegations should respond but not the government as a whole.   

However, Daily Mirror learns that some MPs mulls a formal request to appoint a parliamentary select committee to probe the allegations.   Asked for a comment in this regard, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardane said that he did not receive any such request yet though he heard about such intentions of certain MPs through informal channels.