12 September 2020 10:08 am
Although the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and the State Intelligence Service (SIS) submitted details on six Islamic extremist groups which operated within the country to be banned, former CNI Sisira Mendis and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando had only sent a list of three groups to former President Maithripala Sirisena after the Easter Sunday blasts, it was yesterday informed at the PCoI probing the Easter Sunday attacks, yesterday.
Testifying before the Commission, former CNI Director Sisira Mendis said that after the coordinated terror attacks he and the former Defence Secretary sent a letter to the former President attaching the details of National Thawheed Jama'ath (NTJ), Jamaathé Millathé Ibrahim and Wilaayath As Seylani.
“In the letter we informed the former President to take measures to ban the three organisations because these organisations had direct links to the coordinated terror attacks on April 21, 2019,” he said.
Commissioners then questioned the witness as to why he had not referred to the other three Islamic extremist organisations which the DMI and SIS wanted to ban in the letter sent to the former President.
Responding to the question witness said that the three organisations, All Ceylon Thawheed Jama'ath (ACTJ), Sri Lanka Thawheed Jamaath (SLTJ) and Ceylon Thawheed Jamaath (CTJ) had extremist views but the other organisations were not directly linked to the terror attack.
“The reason for not recommending that these three organisations be banned was that they did not show any direct link to the Easter Sunday attack, but they were being monitored,” he said. By Yoshitha Perera