Sallay issue: The government reaches a point of no return

The arrest of Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay could prove counterproductive if charges against him are not proved

Both groups allege that with another April 21 being two months away,  the government wants to show people, especially the Catholic community,  that it is busy with meting justice to them

A huge controversy has erupted over the arrest of former State Intelligence Service (SIS) chief Suresh Sallay on Wednesday over the suicide attacks on Christians by a group of Muslim terrorists on 2019 Easter Sunday,  which fell on April 21 in that year. 

Hundreds of views and comments are being floated in the mainstream and social media on the incident, but none of those who  expressed their views and posted comments have been able to be objective, all see the issue through their political party prism, which is not a new phenomenon,  either. 

One group, especially those who are associated with the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa,   was very swift to express their views, defending Sallay and lavishing praises on him for his military acumen and achievements -- real and presumed -- during the war between the armed forces and the LTTE. 

Some Rajapaksa loyalists had accused the government for what they said was acting on behalf of the Tamil diaspora,  while giving credit to Sallay for killing the LTTE spokesman S.P Thamilchelvan and bringing to Sri Lanka Kumaran Pathmanathan alias K.P after arresting him in Malaysia in August in 2009. K.P. took over the leadership of the LTTE following the death of Velupillai Prabakaran on the bank of Nandikadal in May 2009.

The leaders of the main Opposition, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), seem to be reluctant to argue on that line as some of them had also been on the bandwagon of those who pointed a finger at the SLPP leadership, especially  former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,  for the macabre crime perpetrated on  Easter Sunday in 2019. Instead, they have joined hands with the SLPP in accusing the current National People’s Power (NPP) government that the arrest was made to cover up  allegations of importing substandard coal from South Africa. 

Both groups allege that with another April 21 being two months away,  the government wants to show people, especially the Catholic community,  that it is busy with meeting justice to them. They claim that last year too, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the mastermind of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks would be revealed before April 21. (In fact, the President never stated that the mastermind of the crime would be revealed, but said during a meeting in Deiyandara on March 30 that his government would be able to make some new revelation on the terrorist attacks by April 21. But the Opposition version prevailed later.) 

All these claims on the arrest of Suresh Sallay are nothing but politics. What is before us is a legal issue and only a court of law would be able to decide Sallay’s fate.

The war winning Army Commander Field Martial Sarath Fonseka replying to some of these political comments had stated that Sallay had nothing to with the killing of LTTE spokesman or the arrest of KP, as the latter was not responsible for the army intelligence apparatus during the times of the said killing and the arrest. 

Counterproductive move

However, praising Sallay or anybody else for the arrest of KP is in a way counterproductive for the SLPP as the Rajapaksa government, after bringing KP to Sri Lanka from Malaysia, never wanted to take legal action against him. Even during so-called the Yahapalana government, when Vijitha Herath, the current Foreign Affairs Minister,  filed a writ application in 2015 in the Court of Appeal seeking KP’s prosecution, court dismissed it on the grounds that the Attorney General had informed the court that KP had no criminal record in Sri Lanka or links to any acts of terror.

Nevertheless, the NPP government is currently under pressure to find some new evidence in respect of the Easter Sunday attacks as per their election pledge. The Catholic Church which was very enthusiastic in installing an NPP government seems to be frustrated now over the delay in the progress of  investigations in to the matter. It was that pressure which prompted President Dissanayake to make the above mentioned “Deiyandara declaration” last year. 

Although that “declaration”  proved to be a flop, the CID, on April 9, arrested former Chief Minister of Eastern Province, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan in connection with the disappearance of former Vice Chancellor of Eastern Province Professor S. Raveendranath in 2006. 

Despite Pillayan having been arrested over an incident not related to the Easter Sunday attacks, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament on July 9 last year that investigations had revealed that Pillayan had prior knowledge on those attacks. Also, during a televised discussion,  Wijepala stated in October last year that evidence has surfaced to suggest that Pillayan is involved in the Easter Sunday attacks. 

In September 2023, the former Coordination secretary of Pillayan, Hanseer Azath Mawlana,  made a statement during a programme aired by  Britain’s Channel 4 connecting Sallay, Pillayan and also Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the Easter Sunday massacre. He said that during Pillayan’s incarceration for the murder of former MP Joseph Pararajasingham,  the latter had met Shainee Mawlavi, the brother of Zahran Hasim, the leader of the National Thawheed Jama’ath (NTJ) that carried out the Easter Sunday crime. He quoted Pillayan as saying that these people (NTJ men) are frustrated and that they are  always talking about death; hence,  he was going to use them for a purpose. 

Karadipooval meeting

Mawlana said that he, at the behest of Pillayan, arranged a meeting between Sallay and a group of NTJ cadres in 2018 at a place called Karadipooval in Puttalam. He said that Sallay told him: “Rajapaksas need an unsafe situation in Sri Lanka and that is the only way for Gotabaya to become President.”

However, the three-member Imam committee appointed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2023 to look into Mawlana’s claims  rejected them as fabrications. And Sallay too,  rejected them, pointing out that on the day the purported meeting was held between him and  Zahran’s group,  he was serving in the Sri Lankan High Commission in Malaysia and his travel documents prove it. 

Soon after Anura Kumara Dissanayake assumed office as President, former CID director Shani Abeysekara took over the investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks again. Accordingly, Pillayan was questioned on November 20, 2024. And in April last year,  he was arrested over the abduction of Professor Raveendranath. This was the backdrop of Sallay’s arrest on Wednesday. However, the seeming link between these incidents and the arrest is yet to be confirmed.

Yet, it must be recalled that some people in Colombo seemed to be alarmed when Pillayan was arrested last year, though over an alleged abduction. 

Nevertheless, the NPP government has reached a point of no return in this issue. If the CID fails to prove any connection between Sallay and the terrorist attacks, it would cause an irreparable damage to the government.