Much less imminence of a second spate of attacks: Army Chief

Army Commander Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake today assured that there is much less imminence of a second spate of terrorist attacks.

Addressing a media beefing, the Commander said however that there could be some other groups but the army is containing the situation.

“We are looking into those groups on how extended their network operations, what are the equipment they carry, what is the time frame and who are the handlers. All are matters under discussion. We are definitely looking into that. Investigations are going on. I will not disclose everything that we have found,” the Commander said.

When asked whether the Army was satisfied that the main threat to be over or the evidence of the suspects in custody suggests that there are other alleviated cells, the Army Commander said there are other sources to find out.

"Some have gone and become international. There is a reason we have to go and check them. Some of the arrests happened in Qatar and Saudi so there is some international links.That means investigations are always going on," he said.

He also said, “We need to understand that these enemies are not fighting for the land. They are simply extremists. This needs a whole different approach to contain them,”

Lieutenant General Senanayake said the Army is spearheading two separate operations. "Under the first operation we are focusing to ensure the security which includes the arrest of suspects, road blocks, seizure of explosives and weapons and ensuring the safety of schools and other institutes," he said.

In the second operation we are working on a time table to bring the situation to normalcy. “We are working on three programmes with short, mid long and long term focus since April 21. There has to be a national action plan to resolve this,” he said.(Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya)