By Rathindra Kuruwita

The mastermind of the Easter Sunday attacks was Naufer Moulavi, a mentor of NTJ leader Zahran Hashim, Minister of Public Security, Dr. Sarath Weerasekera said yesterday, when asked by a journalist whether there had been a foreign hand behind the attacks. Former Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Rasheed Hajjul Akbar too had played a main role, the Minister said.

The Minister said so at a press briefing in Colombo on the future of the report on the PCoI on the Easter carnage.

Weerasekera also said that there was no concrete evidence to prove that Pulasthini Rajendran alias Sarah Jasmine, the wife of Atchchi Muhammadu Muhammadu Hastun, who detonated a suicide bomb at St. Sebastian’s Church, Katuwapitiya on 21 April 2019, had escaped to India.

A journalist told the Minister that during the sittings of the PCoI on the attacks several key witnesses had said there was a foreign involvement in the attacks; some witnesses said they had seen Sara a few months after the attacks and a policeman had been arrested on the allegations that he had helped Sara escape to India.

However, the Minister said that they was no concrete evidence to suggest Sara was alive, although according to the DNA tests, Sara was not among those killed at a Jihadist safe house at Sainthamaruthu on April 26, 2019.

“There were so many body parts there and we must test all of them again to determine whether she was not died there. We have not done a second batch of DNA testing,” Minister Weerasekera said.

The Public Security Minister said that the Attorney General had been given files on 32 suspects for legal action to be instituted; eight more files containing police investigations on each of the attack sites had also been sent. The Attorney General would file cases against suspects of the Easter Sunday.

Weerasekera said that the AG had to study a large volume of documents. The Police had sent eight files on each of the Easter Sunday attack sites to the AG about two months back, he said.

“Those files run into thousands of pages. The PCoI report contains about 100,000 pages. The AG has to go through everything. The AG has appointed a team of 12 lawyers, and they are studying all these documents. They might also have to ask the police to do further investigations. This is not an easy task. In the US and India, some terror suspects have not been charged for years. Time is needed to build a sold case,” he said.

Minister of Mass Media, Keheliya Rambukwella toldthe media said that Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith had demanded legal action against those named in the PCoI report.

Rambukwella said that the government couldn’t decide whom to be prosecuted. The PCoI had made recommendations and the AG had the responsibility to implement them. 

Journalists then asked the Minister whether the government would initiate legal action against former President Maithripala Sirisena, who is the head of a constituent party of the government. On Sunday, Cardinal Ranjith specifically asked the government to take legal action against Sirisena.

“We don’t intervene in these matters. The AG will decide,” Minister Rambukwella said.

Journalists also asked Minister Weerasekera whether action would be taken against policemen whose lapses had contributed to the attacks. The Cardinal too raised concerns about a top policeman in the Central Province named in the PCoI report.

Minister Weerasekera said that he had instructed the IGP to hold a disciplinary inquiry and take action against policemen who were still in the service.

 “The Cardinal is happy with the work the police have done. There is a delay because the AG has to study all documents and build a strong case.”