Defence secretary and police chief sacked as security failings deepen political feud

THE Sri Lankan president yesterday sacked the defence secretary and the national police chief, as political recrimination over the failure to act on intelligence continued to grow.

The Easter Sunday attacks on four luxury hotels and three churches appeared to have deepened a feud between Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, and Maithripala Sirisena, the president.

Yesterday, an ally of the prime minister accused officials of deliberately sitting on intelligence warnings.

Mr Sirisena said he would change the head of the defence forces, as well as asking for the resignations of the defence secretary and national police chief. Indian intelligence gave detailed alerts before the attacks, even naming the mastermind and giving details of where suspects lived.

But political infighting inside Sri Lanka’s dysfunctional government meant that intelligence alerts were not shared, diplomats fear. The president fired Mr Wickremesinghe in October over political differences, only to reinstate him under supreme court pressure. Their opposing factions often refuse to communicate and blame any setbacks on their opponents.

Asked if the rifts within the government had hampered the response to the intelligence, Alaina Teplitz, the US ambassador to Colombo, said: “Clearly there were failures in the system.” The breakdown in communication had been “incredibly tragic”, she said.

Lakshman Kiriella, leader of parliament and an ally of the prime minister, claimed “some top intelligence officials hid the intelligence information purposefully”.

“Information was there but the top brass security officials did not take appropriate actions,” he said.

“Somebody is controlling these top intelligence officials. The security council is doing politics. We need to investigate this.”

Ruwan Wijewardene, the deputy defence minister, admitted there had been “a major lapse in the sharing of information”.