ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s top defence official Wednesday announced that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was not the “mastermind” of the Easter Sunday carnage that many claim was the catalyst for his ascendency.
General Kamal Gunaratne told a press conference organised by the Presidential Media Division that there was no basis for the allegations against Rajapaksa, a political non-entity at the time, who announced his candidacy two days after the April 2019 suicide bombings that killed at least 279 people.
The attacks were blamed on a group of local jihadists although the bombings were belated claimed by the Islamic State group led at the time by the internationally-wanted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who was later killed in a US bombing in Syria six months later.
“There are lot of allegations on social media that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the main mastermind of the Easter attacks,” Gunaratne said. “There is no truth in those allegations. It is a despicable attempt at making political gains”
He also denied allegations that the country’s current head of intelligence, Major General Suresh Sallay, was also involved in instigating the National Thowheed Jamath leader Zahran Hashim to carry out the audacious bombings. Sallay was previous the head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).
He said many linked Sally to the bombings because he was also a member of the minority Muslim community. Hundreds of Muslims were detained following the Easter Sunday attacks and some are still in detention without charges.
“It is unfair to make those allegations. As far as I know, Sally, a ‘golaya’ (student ) of mine from the time of being a cadet to major general. He can’t speak a word of Tamil or Arabic. He has not read the Koran, only the “Sally” part of his name is Muslim. He is not a radical.
“His two children have Sinhala names. He is married to a Sinhala-Buddhist lady,” Gunaratne said adding that Sallay who currently heads the State Intelligence Service, the country’s premier spy agency, was an asset to the country and the “jaaythiya” (race).
Sallay was performing a ”bodi pooja” at the “Uda maluwa” of Anuradhapura (Sri Maha Bodhi) when Gunaratne went there during the opening of the Sandahiru Seya temple recently, he said.
He also flatly denied that the suicide bomb leader was funded by the directorate of military intelligence (DMI) during a previous Rajapaksa administration when Sallay headed the DMI. Government minister had previously admitted that several Thowheed Jamath groups as well as the BBS, the Bodu Bala Sena group were supported by intelligence agencies. Zahran Hashim had broken away from one such Thowheed Jamath groups and formed his own.
In October, Sallay filed a complaint against Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s spokesman father Cyril Gamini Fernando over allegations that he (Sallay) played a key role in nurturing Zaharan Hashim. (COLOMBO, December 15, 2021)
Only a credible judicial process can decide who the masterminds were. In the absence of such a process rumours and loose talk will continue. No amount of character certificates issued by Defence Sec will stop people’s suspicions, fair or not. DS should not act the judge, jury and the executioner.