23 February 2021 12:00 am
The six-member Committee appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to study the Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into Easter Sunday attacks has been entrusted with a wide ranging mandate, a statement from the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.
Identifying the overall process including the measures that need to be taken by various agencies and authorities such as the Parliament, judiciary, Attorney General’s Department, security forces, State Intelligence services and implementing recommendations as stipulated by PCoI to avert recurrence of a national catastrophe of such magnitude is the prime responsibility of the Committee, according to the statement.
“These recommendations cannot be successfully implemented by any entity single handedly.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into the Easter Sunday attacks was appointed in 2019 by the previous Government.
The government in power is of the view that the Easter Sunday attacks had a devastating impact on the national security and stability, the economy, religious harmony and the social fabric of the country. The background to these events also opens the door to external interference that is detrimental to the country’s sovereignty and stability. In order to ensure peace and security as well as economic prosperity within the territory of the State of Sri Lanka, all avenues leading to recurrence of such extremist violence must entirely be closed. This requires a complete cessation of religious extremism and associated terrorist violence, hate speech aiming different ethnic communities and foreign funding for such groups.