Colombo: President Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa has ordered an investigation of allegations that some members of the State Intelligence Institute tofu and met with the people who conducted Easter Sunday bombings in 2019 which killed more than 260 people, said a government official.
The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka wrote to the President on Tuesday evoking concerns about handling the suicide government and asked him to investigate the alleged relationship between intelligence personnel and groups that carried out attacks.
Two local Muslim groups expressed loyalty to the Islamic group conducted six coordinated attacks on churches and leading tourist hotels, killing 269 people.
Other men did not carry out planned attacks in a fourth tourist hotel but suicide later by blowing up a bomb in a different location.
The letter from the National Catholic Committee for Justice for the victims of Easter Sunday attacks, a group of bishops and imah led by the Archbishop of Cardinal Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, asked the President to take legal action against former President Maithripala Sirisena for negligence as recommended by the president of the Demand Commission report.
The Sirisena government is under severe criticism because it does not act on a specific foreign intelligence warning that is close to that the attack is near.
Media Minister Kehelyiya Rambukwella said on Wednesday that all commission findings had been submitted to the right authorities.
“There are so many things that flow and the best thing that the President can do is to refer them to related authorities,” said Rambukwella.
“The President has referred them all to the relevant authorities for further action.” The Church group also said former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had to be investigated because the report concluded that his gentle approach to Islamic extremism had caused the attack.
The letter also said the authorities had not taken legal action against 11 police officers, two officials from the Department of Attorney General, and two Muslim politicians were named Commission.
Some parliamentarians have spoken in the parliament who quoted witnesses who emerged before the Commission said that members of the state intelligence agency met with men who resigned from the initial attack before committing suicide.
The letter from Church officials quoted a speech in Parliament said that intelligence personnel allegedly had suspects in police detention released.
The Presidential Commission report has not been released to the public.
A single volume is given to members of parliament and all reports are given to the Attorney General’s Department for prosecution.