Easter Sunday Probe outcome should not be predetermined

• In spite of around 270 people being  killed in these terrorist attacks, within days these human lives were being used for political ends by various individuals and groups

There is no denying that justice must be meted out to the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks that took place six years ago. Yet, what does it mean? Also there is no denying that lives  lost in the macabre terrorist attacks would not return, or that nobody is capable of  breathing life to those approximately 270 people  killed in the  bombings. 
Only thing the authorities can do is to bring those who have planned and executed the carnage before the law and punish them in proportion to the dastardly crime. The inevitable question then arises is “who are they?” Was it the National Thawheed Jama’ath (NTJ), to which the suicide bombers  belonged to, or were there any other individuals or organisations behind the crime?
The issue has been so politicised that the ruling parties that were in power before the current National People’s Power (NPP) alliance seem to want to see the books closed on the matter, putting the whole blame on one of the dead terrorists or one who is in custody. The NPP and some others including the Catholic Church as well as the majority of  the Catholic community seem to prefer to see a mastermind who had planned, guided and executed the barbaric killings of three hundred people in three tourist hotels and three churches. 
For the past six years, the answer to this question has been eluding us. The question of a mastermind is not without grounds. It stems from so many other questions that have not been answered so far. Prime among them concerns the acquision by the terrorists of explosives and training in suicide attacks which cannot be acquired easily.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake visited the Katuwapitiya St Sebastian’s Catholic Church, one of the three churches  attacked by the terrorists on April 21, 2019,  and saw the highest number of casualties -115 deaths. He commendably told a gathering there that though his government would expedite the investigations into the terrorist attack, he did not expect a predetermined outcome from those investigations. 
The President during an election rally over the weekend stated that power hunger led to the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, implying a certain party as the culprit. Nobody can deny or confirm this until the police come out with concrete evidence to prove that politicians have been involved in the attacks. 
Similarly, when former Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan was arrested on April 8 over the disappearance of former Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University Professor S. Raveendranath in 2006, former President Ranil Wickremesinghe was said to have attempted to talk to him over the phone while the leader of the Pivithuru HelaUrumaya (PHU), Udaya Gammanpila had volunteered to be Pillayan’s counsel without the latter’s request. This shows some interest by the former President and the PHU leader to get  involved in Pillayan affair. Pillayan was accused of having a hand in the Easter Sunday attacks by his former secretary Azath Maulana.
In spite of around 270 people being  killed in these terrorist attacks, within days these human lives were being used for political ends by various individuals and groups. Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, one of those who were credited for the victory in the thirty year-long separatist war, declared his candidature for the next Presidential election six days after the carnage. Then a massive anti-Muslim campaign was launched by the supporters of his party Sri Lanka PodujanaPeramuna (SLPP),in the run up to the Presidential election. SLPP, prior to the 2019 Presidential election, also promised to expose the mastermind of the crime, but later disappointed the Catholic community by stating that Nawfer Mavlavi who was already in police custody was the mastermind. 
During successive elections various political parties gave the same promise, but to no avail. Committees, commissions and Parliamentary select committees were appointed apparently to suit to interests of various political parties. Now the lives of 270 people have become a political football between political parties. Need of the hour is an impartial investigation without targeting predetermined outcomes.