Easter Sunday carnage could have been averted if Parliament had heeded 2016 warning: Wijeyadasa

Former Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, yesterday (22) said that a genuine effort should be made to ascertain why the first warning regarding Sri Lankan extremists' direct link with ISIS was ignored by Parliament.

- BY SHAMINDRA FERDINANDO

"Those who are harping on Easter Sunday masterminds and grand conspiracies have conveniently forgotten that the alleged link was exposed in Parliament on Nov, 18, 2016, by me in my then capacity as Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Minister," Dr Rajapakshe said.

The one-time President of the Bar Association said that he had made that declaration after confirming the developing situation with the then head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).

Dr. Rajapakshe said that "instead of immediately launching an investigation, the Yahapalana government targeted me." The former Minister named the then Cabinet spokesman Dr. Rajitha Senarathna as one of the culprits who had publicly dismissed the warning he had issued in Parliament.

"The truth is the top Yahapalana leadership, particularly Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, lacked the courage to go ahead with an investigation as almost all Muslim MPs, irrespective of the parties they represented, demanded my removal from the Cabinet-of-Ministers," the ex-MP said.