Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

Former PM raises serious concerns over findings of Easter Sunday attacks

He further warned Sri Lanka was heading for an economic crisis by the end of the year and a lack of funds was the main reason that the government had not been able to purchase the anti COVID-19 vaccines

- BY JAMILA HUSAIN

No answers to some questions so far Why was Indian intelligen­ce info not taken seriously? Says the report is incomplete Why couldn’t they tell us about Zahran and the others earlier?

Former Prime Minister and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesi­nghe has raised serious concerns over the findings of the Easter Sunday attacks saying there were still many unanswered questions which needed to be looked into.

Mr. Wickremesi­nghe told the Daily Mirror that while the former government was indeed responsibl­e for the security of the country during its tenure, informatio­n was not shared with him on time and even to date some questions had received no answers."there were two issues involved. One is why did the informatio­n come late to the government about the possibilit­y of the attacks. They had briefed the

President in February, but before that there had been no major report coming in. So what happened there?" Mr. Wickremesi­nghe said.

"Secondly, during the last few days we had informatio­n which came from the Indian side. I find that this is very incomplete. When I got in that day, soon after the attacks, and spoke to the intelligen­ce and other security agencies after the bomb blast, within 9 hours they had identified Ibrahim and others and cracked open the case and had gone into Dematagoda. That means when they are under pressure they can work really well. Why was it that they could not tell us about Zahran and the others earlier?" he questioned.

He further warned Sri Lanka was heading for an economic crisis by the end of the year and a lack of funds was the main reason that the government had not been able to purchase the anti COVID-19 vaccines or place the sufficient number of orders to cover the necessary population.

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