Defence Secretary, General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne at a recent media briefing refuted allegations that there was a political conspiracy surrounding the Easter Sunday terror attacks in April 2019.
He said that 735 people have been arrested so far in connection with the terror attacks, which killed 269 people in several suicide bombings on churches and five star hotels in Colombo and the suburbs on April 21, 2019. Over 40 foreign nationals were among those killed in the incident.
The Defence Secretary said that 27 cases have been filed against 81 people on 25,653 charges and 29 people are still being held on detention orders and being questioned.
He said foreign intelligence services also teamed up with the local investigators to probe the brutal incident, linked to ISIS and that the allegations made by various people were baseless.
On Thursday the Catholic Church rejected the Defence Secretary’s remarks and posed 20 questions to the General (retd) Gunaratna on certain unclear areas in the investigations including what actionhas been taken to ascertain the identity of Sara Jesmin, a terror suspect who fled to India several months after the Easter Sunday attacks.
Media spokesperson of the Catholic Church, Fr. Cyril Gamini inquired if assistance of Indian intelligence had been sought to find the truth behind Sara Jesmin.
It has questioned the Defence Secretary as to the basis on which he claims that the Easter attack was not a political conspiracy and whether any investigations were carried out to ascertain this claim.