Probe into unattended evidence of Easter Attack on its sixth anniversary

Former Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila, who has volunteered to be the attorney for detained Pillayan earlier brought up these facts quoted from the report of the probe committee of retired Supreme Court Judge S. I. Imam, appointed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe   

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana

Not ruling out the connection between Pillayan, exiled Channel 4 whistleblower Hanzeer Azad Maulana and Saharan Hashim with the Easter bombers as a script of the same incident, the civil society activists yesterday urged the government to probe into several unattended findings of the Easter Sunday attack at its sixth anniversary which falls next Monday.   

Convening a special press briefing yesterday Executive Director Centre for Society and Religion (CSR) Rev. Fr. Rohan Silva said they dispatched a 13 page document compiled with the details of several aspects of unattended evidence pertaining to the Easter Sunday carnage to be probed immediately, to the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Security Ravi Seneviratne and copied to Acting IGP Priyantha Weerasuriya and Director of Central Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) Shani Abeysekara.  

The document had elaborated chiefly on five areas to be probed urgently, which are the information of Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameel the suspect who blew himself at the Tropical Inn guesthouse in Dehiwala instead at Hotel Taj Samudra, Abuhind who was linked to Saharan, The wife of Katuwapitiya bomber Sarah Jasmine, Channel 4 whistleblower Hanzeer Asad Maulana and also not acting on the early warnings of the attack.   

CSR investigation team member cum Journalist Tharindu Jayawardena speaking at the briefing said it is strange how officials have ignored the fact that Saharan’s father and brother who were remanded in Batticaloa Prison over a clash in 2017 had been detained together with controversial Tamil politician Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, who is currently being detained for 90 days at the Criminal Investigation Department.   

He said none of the information pertaining to suspect Jameel who came to blow up the Taj Samudra hotel had been looked into which creates strong suspicions, whether the entire attack was orchestrated to achieve certain conspiracy rather than a mere an extremist attack in a Buddhist country.   

Former Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila, who has volunteered to be the attorney for detained Pillayan earlier brought up these facts quoted from the report of the probe committee of retired Supreme Court Judge S. I. Imam, appointed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Jayawardena said.   

“It is the responsibility of this government to look into all this unattended evidence gathered from several commissions without fail as it was a promise they pledged through their election manifesto last year. We commend the NPP Government and its law enforcement body for recommencing the Easter Attack probe but there are serious areas they should look into soon,” Jayawardena said.