One year on Pressure mounts on Govt. as Easter Sunday probe lacks results

In his election pledge in 2024, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that identifying the masterminds behind the attacks and bringing them to justice would be a top priority of a NPP govt.

The recent remarks made by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Parliament have cast doubt on the integrity of the investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks after he revealed that critical evidence had gone missing, potentially hindering the ongoing probe.  

This not only impedes the ongoing investigations but also tests the promises made by the President and his party during the Presidential election period last year. 

According to the statement made by President Dissanayake on Tuesday (18), years of political interference had severely obstructed earlier efforts to uncover the truth of the carnage.   

He said investigators are now analysing phone records, networks of connections, and other technical data to identify those who masterminded the coordinated bombings.  

However, the President stressed that much of the evidence must be rebuilt in court, as crucial material had been suppressed or destroyed under previous administrations.  

The President noted that the attacks should have been thoroughly investigated when memories and evidence were still fresh, but the process stalled after political groups suspected of involvement came into power. “Key evidence had been tampered with, including instances where “pages were torn from books,” he said. However he failed to name who these groups were.  

He added that nearly 500 CID officers were placed under travel bans during the previous administration, while several senior investigators were removed, transferred, or imprisoned—moves he described as part of a broader pattern of obstruction.  

The President further said that earlier investigations were botched or suppressed and that important institutions were compromised.  

Despite these setbacks, he vowed that those responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks would be brought before the law.  

The President made these remarks in the backdrop where the Secretary to Ministry of Public Security Ravi Seneviratne is said to have recently revealed to the Committee on High Posts that the main conspirator behind the Easter Sunday attacks had been identified. This was disclosed by Sri Lanka Muslim Congress MP Nizam Kariyapper, on an X post.  

One of the prominent slogans by the NPP during both the general and presidential elections last year was to bring the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday terror attacks to book and deliver justice to the victims.  

President Dissanayake said in his 2024 election pledge, that the Easter Sunday bombings were part of a conspiracy orchestrated by a group seeking narrow political gain by inciting ethnic discord, triggering communal unrest, and causing widespread loss of life and property.  

He vowed that identifying the masterminds behind the attacks and bringing them to justice would be a top priority of a National People’s Power government.  

However, once elected, government led by President Dissanayake seemed to have realized that bringing perpetrators to justice is a herculean task as a lot of evidence had been concealed as they claimed.   

During a discussion held at St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya on October 06, 2024, President Dissanayake announced that investigations into Easter Sunday attacks will be expedited and adding that steps will be taken to avert such a tragedy again.   

Furthermore, On October 21, 2024, the President instructed the Inspector General of Police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to initiate a formal investigation into the attacks.  

The opposition parties alleged that the government is unable to carry out an independent investigation with Ravi Seneviratne and Shani Abeysekara who held key positions in the police department during the time of the attacks, being tasked to monitor the ongoing investigations.   

Meanwhile, Spokesperson for Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando told Daily Mirror that ongoing investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks are finally progressing under the present government despite delays.  

“The investigations came to a complete standstill after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became the President. During that period, nothing tangible happened to uncover the truth rather complicated it for governments to come,”  

However, Fr. Cyril Gamini expressed confidence that the current investigative teams would operate independently to unearth the truth.  

On the other hand, Opposition MP Mujibur Rahman while highlighting that some detailed documents on Easter Sunday attacks have not been tabled in Parliament urged the government to table them without further delay.   

“Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has hidden some parts of the report submitted by the Presidential commission which probed the attacks,” he said.   

The MP also said the part where the evidence given by the Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith had also gone missing,”