25 August 2020 12:00 am
By Yoshitha Perera
Former IGP Pujith Jayasundara’s letter with regard to information of an alleged plan of attack had been circulated among the security agencies from April 9, 2019 onwards, former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena yesterday informed the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks.
Testifying before the Commission, SDIG Jayawardena said that after the coordinated terror attacks on April 21, 2019 former President Maithripala Sirisena had questioned whether the State Intelligence Service (SIS) was aware of extremist activities in the country.
Responding to a question raised by the representative from the Attorney General’s (AG) Department with regard to comments made by certain political and security heads after the attack, Mr. Jayawardena said that the SIS was criticised for not sharing intelligence information properly, but the SIS had properly fulfilled its duties.
Referring to a letter sent by the former IGP to the Director of Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) after the attacks, Mr. Jayawardena said that it was clear that the TID had also received a certain amount of information with regard to the imminent attack on April 21.
“From the letter sent by the former IGP to the TID, it was clear the TID had also received a considerable amount of information on coordinated terror attacks. However, the IGP has criticised the TID as an investigation unit, on its failure to take proper action promptly with regard to the prevention of such attacks,” he said.
SDIG Jayawaradena also said that there was no feedback from the security agencies with regard to the information provided by the SIS on religious extremism during his tenure. Earlier, it was informed to the Commission that the SIS had on several occasions informed various investigation units such as the TID, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the National Security Council and the Police on the growing extremist activities, especially in the Eastern Province.