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Easter Sunday carnage: SJB asks Church to seek arrest warrant for suicide bomber’s wife, Sara

Published

2 months ago

2026/01/9

… asks who called for third DNA test

Top SJB spokesman Mujibur Rahuman, MP, wants the Catholic Church to exert pressure on the NPP government to have an arrest warrant issued for Pulasthini Mahendran aka Sara Jasmine, wife of Katuwapitiya suicide bomber Atchchi Muhammadu Hastun.

Colombo District lawmaker yesterday (8) told The Island that the Catholic Church should throw its weight behind the SJB’s call for an open warrant and pressure the government to ask for Interpol assistance to track down the fugitive.

She would be able to throw light on the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage, the former UNPer said, urging the Catholic Church to make its position known without delay.

Alleging that Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananda Wijepala had been evasive in his response to a query posed to him in parliament on Wednesday regarding Easter Sunday attacks, lawmaker Rahuman asked whether the NPP was trying to cover up something.

Against the backdrop of the NPP’s declaration that Sara Jasmine is alive, the government should inquire into the circumstances the Government Analyst Department in late Sept 2023 announced that she was among those who perished in multiple blasts at Sainthamaruthu on April 26, 2019.

The Police Headquarters made the announcement on behalf of the Government Analyst’s Department that reached the conclusion after carrying out DNA tests for the third time on the tissue samples that had been obtained for the investigations by Judicial Medical Officers, Detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department, and the Government Analyst’s Department.

After the change of government following the last presidential election the NPP initiated an inquiry to verify the third DNA test. MP Rahuman pointed out that the third DNA test had been quite controversial as the two previous proved that she was not among the dead at Sainthamaruthu, where the group including some family members gathered.

The CID inquiring into the third DNA test last month recorded statements from C.D. Wickremeratne who had been the IGP at that time as well as DIG CID, Prasad Ranasinghe regarding the issues at hand. Wickremaratne has said that the third test was ordered in the wake of the concerns expressed at the National Security Council (NSC) regarding Sara Jasmine’s status.

MP Rahuman stressed that right along he believed Sara Jasmine was alive and had taken refuge in India.

MP Rahuman quoted terror mastermind Zahran Hashim’s wife, Abdul Cader Fatima Hadiya, as having told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI) into the Easter Sunday blasts, that she heard Jasmine’s voice, after the blasts. Those killed at Sainthamaruthu, a week later, included Zahran Hashim’s father Mohamed Hashim and his brothers Zainee and Rilwan. Rilwan is believed to have been one of those who detonated bombs. Fatima and her child survived the Sainthamaruthu blasts and remain in government custody.

Lawmaker Rahuman said that the Catholic Church’s intervention is essential to compel President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to go the whole hog. “We cannot forget that the father of two of the suicide bombers was on the JVP National List at the 2015 parliamentary election and that wife of one of the bombers blasted herself at their Dematagoda home.”

By Shamindra Ferdinando ✍️

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’Reimagining International Relations from a Global South Perspective’ offers a timely and rigorous contribution, providing key insights into policy, diplomacy, and global governance – PM

Published

1 hour ago

2026/02/26

Priyan

Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya made while participating in the latest publication of the Bandaranaike Center for International Studies (BCIS) titled ‘Reimagining International Relations from a Global South’ held on the 24 February 2026 at the BCIS Auditorium said that the volume offers a timely and rigorous contribution, providing key insights into policy, diplomcy and global governance.

Authored by Emeritus Professor Gamini Keerawella, former Senior Professor of History at the University of Peradeniya and a member of the BCIS Council of Management and Academic Affairs Board, the book ’Reimagining International Relations from a Global South Perspective’ offers a compelling re-examination of International Relations through a distinctly Global South perspective.

Congratulating on the publication, the Prime Minister stated that the publication represents a timely and important intervention in understanding how the Global South’s international relations and international policy has evolved and traces the many different pathways. She further noted that this volume invites for re-imagine international relations as a genuinely plural and it doesn’t necessarily only go for the discipline of international relations, that is something that applies to all disciplines.

The occasion was attended by the former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Chairperson of BCIS, Deputy Minister of Mass Media Dr. Kaushalya Ariyarathne, members of the diplomatic community, representatives of the Bandaranaike National Memorial Foundation Board of Management, members of the BCIS governing bodies, and invited scholars and practitioners.

[Prime Minister’s Media Division]

News

CID arrests former top military intelligence officer under PTA

Published

3 hours ago

2026/02/26

Sahan Weerasooriya

Suresh Sallay

Suresh Sallay, who played a significant role in the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) during the war, has been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

DIG (Legal Division) Jaliya Senaratne yesterday told a hastily called media briefing that Sallay had been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage. Senaratne said that as the ex-officer had been apprehended in terms of the PTA, he could be held for 72 hours for questioning.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested him at Peliyagoda yesterday morning. At the time of the suicide bombings, Sallay had been at the National Defence College (NDC) of India.

Sallay had been under investigation over declaration made by one Azad Maulana, in an interview with British television network Channel 4, that Sallay met the Easter Sunday bombers, including their leader Zahran Hashim, in February 2018. Responding to Maulana’s allegation, Sallay told the UK network that he had been assigned to the Sri Lankan mission, in Malaysia, during the 2016-2018 period and never left the country in 2018.

According to Sallay, he had been out of Malaysia only once, during the entire 2016-2018 period, and that was in 2017.

Maulana also accused him of meeting Pilleyan who, at that time, was held at Prison.

Pilleyan, too, was arrested in connection with the same investigation.

Following the change of government in November 2019, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed Sallay head of the State Intelligence Services (SIS), a post previously held by Senior DIG Nilantha Jayawardena accused of the worst post-war intelligence failure.

Sallay retired in October 2024 following Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s victory in the presidential election. (SF)

News

Corruption in coal procurement: CP demands action against all responsible

Published

3 hours ago

2026/02/26

Sahan Weerasooriya

Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody, blamed for causing heavy losses to the state coffers by procuring substandard coal for the Norochcholai power plant, stands next to Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya on Tuesday (24) at a power sector awards ceremony at the BMICH.(pic courtesy Energy Ministry)

The Communist Party yesterday (25) said that all individuals, regardless of political affiliation or status, responsible for the coal procurement scandal, should be held accountable, if found guilty of wrongdoing. The Opposition has directly pointed fingers at Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody in this regard. The following is the text of the statement issued by the CP:

“The Communist Party of Sri Lanka wishes to add its voice to the growing public outcry in response to the unfolding revelations surrounding the coal procurement scandal. These revelations have, once again, exposed the deep‑rooted corruption embedded within the neoliberal governance framework that has dominated the country’s economic management for decades.

The CPSL condemns, in the strongest terms, the irregularities and manipulations that have allegedly taken place in the awarding of coal supply contracts. These actions represent not mere administrative lapses but a systematic betrayal of the public trust, carried out at the expense of the national economy, and the working people, who ultimately bear the burden of such misconduct.

The Party emphasises the following:

* Corruption, in strategic sectors such as energy, threatens national sovereignty directly, as it compromises the stability of essential services and places the country at the mercy of private profiteers.

* The scandal reflects the failure of successive governments to establish transparent, accountable, and socially responsible procurement systems, instead allowing political patronage networks and corporate interests to dominate public resources, which the National People’s Power government swore to eradicate

* The CPSL calls for a full, independent, and publicly accessible investigation, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of political affiliation or status, are held accountable, if found guilty of wrongdoing.

* The CPSL urges the government to immediately review procurement mechanisms across all state institutions, ensuring that national resources are managed in the interest of the people rather than of private intermediaries.

The Communist Party of Sri Lanka stands firmly with the working class and the broad masses in demanding justice and transparency. The coal procurement scandal must not be allowed to fade into yet another episode of unpunished corruption. It must become a turning point toward building a state apparatus that serves the people, not the profiteers.”