Sri Lanka Easter attack probe panel summons ex-pm Wickremesinghe
Beirut:lebanese security officials warned the prime minister and president last month that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in Beirut’s port posed a security risk and could destroy the capital if it exploded, according to documents seen by Reuters and senior security sources.
Just over two weeks later, the industrial chemicals went up in a massive blast that obliterated most of the port and swathes of the capital, killed at least 163 people, injured 6,000 and destroyed 6,000 buildings.
A report by the General Directorate of State Security on events leading up to the explosion included a reference to a private letter sent to President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab on July 20.
While the content of the letter was not in the report, a senior security official said it summed up the findings of a judicial investigation launched in January which concluded the chemicals needed to be secured immediately. The state security report, which confirmed the correspondence to the president and the prime minister, has not previously been reported. “There was a danger that this material, if stolen, could be used in a terrorist attack,” the official told Reuters.
“I warned them that this could destroy Beirut if it exploded,” said the official, who was involved in writing the letter and declined to be named.
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who suffered a crushing defeat in the last parliamentary polls, has been summoned by a presidential probe panel on August 18 to record his statement on the deadly Easter Sunday attacks, officials said on Tuesday.
Nine suicide bombers belonging to local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to Islamic State carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three churches and as many luxury hotels on the Easter Sunday last year, killing 258 people, including 11 Indians.
The previous government headed by president Maithripala Sirisena and prime minister Wickremesinghe was blamed for its inability to prevent the attacks despite the prior intelligence made available on the impending attack. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa continued with the same panel appointed by Sirisena after assuming office. The police unit of the panel appointed by then president Sirisena has asked Wickremesinghe to appear before them on August 18.