20 July 2020 12:00 am
By Yoshitha Perera
The day before Easter Sunday bombings in 2019, former Director of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) Waruna Jayasundara had requested the then State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena to seek special permission from the President to obstruct the activities of National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ) Leader Zahran Hashim and his associates but the request was not considered, current Commandant of the Special Task Force (STF) Waruna Jayasundara on Friday informed the PCoI Easter Sunday attacks.
Jayasundara said that there was an Intelligence Review Meeting on April 9, 2019, the day of the warning letter on possible terror attacks received but the former SIS Director did not discuss any intelligence received on possible terror attacks.
An Official representing the Attorney General’s department questioned the witness whether he took any action to arrest Zahran with regard to the open warrant obtained by former DIG Nalaka de Silva on July 9, 2018, before he was interdicted from the TID.
Responding to the question, DIG Jayasundara said that the TID had launched about eight operations to arrest Zahran in areas such as Kattankudy and Akkaraipattu. “However, when the TID officials went to Zahran’s wife’s house in Kekunugolla on February 28, 2019, in search of Zahran, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) had instructed TID officials to leave that place as CID was already engaged in the investigation,” witness said. The Commissioners questioned the witness whether STF intelligence officers had been deployed in the Eastern Province from October 2018 to May 2019.