A day of infamy

21 April 2019 has now become a day of infamy in the annals of Sri Lankan history. Five long years ago on this day the country faced its worst terrorist attack. Over 260 civilians died on that day when a group of terrorists blew themselves up in three churches and three hotels. To this date no one has been held accountable for this heinous crime. 

Despite Sri Lanka facing numerous terrorist attacks during its 26-year civil war, the attacks on Easter Sunday 2021 remains one of the most dubious on record because of the significant and credible accusations of State involvement.

Much information has sufficed since to indicate that high level personnel associated with the State were involved in this attack. Last year, the UK broadcaster, Channel 4, made startling revelations that linked Sri Lanka’s clandestine and powerful intelligence network to the bombings. A whistle-blower claimed that he arranged a meeting between several of the suicide bombers and the head of Sri Lanka’s intelligence apparatus, Major General Suresh Sallay. The whistle-blower also claims that Sallay called him on the day of the bombings and instructed him to go to the Taj Samudra Hotel to meet an individual. It was the suicide bomber tasked to blow himself up at the Taj who didn’t detonate his bomb but later killed himself at a lodge in Dehiwela. There is no record of General Sallay even being questioned by a competent authority after these revelations.

One of Sri Lanka’s most proficient criminal investigators, Shani Abeysekera filed a petition in the Supreme Court in February 2022 where he states that Sri Lanka’s military intelligence interfered on several occasions into the Easter Sunday bombings. In his petition, which has not been refuted by the State thus far, Abeysekera claims that an individual who used the pseudonym of Sonic was associated with the bombers. The former Director of the CID identifies ‘Sonic’ as a person within military intelligence. When individuals associated with the bombings were apprehended by the CID they were later forcefully taken by personnel belonging to military intelligence. 

Later last year, State Minister for Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon made a startling revelation officially admitting in Parliament that the individual who was known by the code name ‘Sonic’, was in fact an intelligence operative of the State. According to the Minister, Sonic had infiltrated the terror cell of Zaharan Hashim and been a source of information. 

The police were not allowed to carry out their investigations in the Easter bombings and the involvement of State agents in this attack. Those who courageously led these investigations including DIG Ravi Seneviratne, SSP Shani Abeysekera and IP Nishantha Silva were harassed and threatened. Abeysekera was incarcerated for 11 months while Silva was forced to seek asylum abroad.

The current administration of President Ranil Wickremesinghe has done absolutely nothing to investigate these claims, adding further fuel to the notion of a grand cover-up and conspiracy.

The fact that those who carried out this act of violence and those who allowed it to happen by their sheer negligence have gotten away with this heinous crime will ensure that 21 April will forever be a day of infamy in Sri Lanka. It should also be a day to rally for justice, not only for those killed on Easter Sunday but for tens of thousands of citizens killed due to political violence in the country.