PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks Rishad explains visit of Easter Sunday attacks suspect’s house

• An unidentified group had taken this person which was illegal. That was why I went to their house to check the matter

By Yoshitha Perera   

MP Rishad Bathiudeen told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing Easter Sunday attacks that he contacted then Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake thrice to know about the suspect arrested in connection with the multiple bombings. 

Mr. Bathiudeen, who was a Cabinet Minister then, said he learnt from the Army Commander that the son of Mohammed Hanifa Muhinuddin was with the Army when he contacted him for the third time.  

Mohammed Hanifa Mohammed was the Secretary of the Task Force for Resettlement during MP Bathiudeen’s tenure as the Resettlement Minister.   

Earlier, testifying before the Commission the former Army Commander said that MP Bathiudeen contacted him thrice to check the whereabouts of the Easter Sunday suspect mentioning that the suspect was the son of his friend.   

MP Bathiudeen informed the Commission that according to the text message received by his friend Mohammed Hanifa Muhinuddin, his son was taken by an unidentified group after the Easter Sunday attacks.   

“This was why I went to his house. Then I contacted the Dehiwala OIC and he said Muhinuddin’s son was not arrested by them. I then called the SSP who was handing the Dehiwala Division and he also said the same thing. When I questioned where I could find the son of my friend, he asked me to check with the Army,” MP Bathiudeen said.   

The witness said he had then contacted the former Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake thrice to check the whereabouts of Muhinuddin Ihsan Ahmed, who had been arrested as a suspect of the Easter Sunday attacks.   
“An unidentified group had taken this person which was illegal. That was why I went to their house to check the matter,” he said. 

• Mr. Bathiudeen said he learnt from  the Army Commander that the son of Mohammed Hanifa Muhinuddin was  with the Army when he contacted him for the third time