26 March 2021 11:45 am
Former president Maithripala Sirisena said today the then government should take collective responsibility for the Easter Sunday attack.
He told Parliament that it was the responsibility of the whole government to take steps to prevent terrorism and extremism adding that the President, the Prime Minister, Ministers or officials were not individually responsible in that regard.
Mr Sirisena said he had not been informed of the intelligence information received from a foreign source pertaining to the Easter Sunday attack.
He said if he had received the intelligence information, he would never have allowed such an attack.
“I would have taken all the action to provide security to churches, hotels and also to impose curfew in Colombo if I had been informed of the information,” he said adding that no one had given evidence before the Presidential Commission which probed Easter Sunday attack that he had been given the intelligence information as claimed by opposition MPs. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)