Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has asked for the resignation of one of the country’s defence ministers, Hemasiri Fernando, and the Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, over the mishandling of the intelligence reports in the lead up to Easter Sunday’s attacks, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
Warnings had been shared with Sri Lankan security services – including one memo addressed to the Inspector General of Police – ahead of the attacks but no measures had been implemented to thwart them.
President Sirisea, who is also the country’s Defense Minister, said yesterday that he had no prior knowledge of the advance warning.
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s opposition MP Wijedasa Rajapaksa told a press conference on Wednesday that he forwarded a letter to President Sirisena asking him to arrest both men.
Sri Lanka is worried about the increasing trend of well-educated youth from well-to-do families getting involved in terrorist activities.
Rawan Wijewardene said: “This group of suicide bombers, most of them are well-educated and come from the middle or upper-middle class, so they are financially quite independent and their families are quite stable financially, that is a worrying factor in this.”
India relayed three specific warnings about possible terror attacks to Sri Lanka, ahead of the Easter Sunday bombings. The final warning was communicated just one hour before the explosions started, a person with knowledge of the information told CNN.
The first warning was communicated on April 4; the second warning was sent on April 20, one day before the attacks; and a third warning was sent on the morning of the attack.
The warnings specified that churches and hotels could be among the targets, the person said.
Sri Lankan officials have acknowledged that their country received intelligence about possible terror strikes ahead of the Easter Sunday attacks, but both the President and Prime Minister have said that they did not receive the information.
Should the defense bosses be made to resign?