Rear Admiral Dasanayake says he was brought back forcibly

Rear Admiral D. K. P. Dasanayake yesterday informed the Presidential Commission appointed to probe public sector political victimisation that the former ‘Yahapalana’ government had forcibly brought him back to the country when he was following post-graduate studies on counter-terrorism in the United States, and that he could have taken measures to prevent the April 21 terror attacks.

He informed the Commission that he had gone to US on September 14, 2014 for post-graduate studies on counter- terrorism and the programme was mainly focused on countering Islamic extremism, specially ISIS.

“It was a time where ISIS was rising up in the world and the programme which I was following was really important to obtain knowledge on countering Islamic extremism” he said.

He said, after the Government of Good Governance was elected, the then Navy Commander Vice Admiral Jayantha Perera informed him to return to the country as per the instructions of the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe following a decision made by the Security Council at the time.

Dasanayake said he had returned to the country on an educational holiday.

“When I returned to the country, the CID requested me to provide a statement on the abduction and disappearance case of 11 youth in 2008 and 2009. But rather than recording a statement, OIC of the CID Nishantha de Silva filed a motion in court and obtained a travel ban against me”, he informed the Commission.

He said that due to this travel ban he could not follow the US postgraduate course on counterterrorism and the country had missed an opportunity in obtaining knowledge on Islamic extremism.