Easter Sunday probe must not be swept under carpet – Cardinal

Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith yesterday urged the government not to delay investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks because of the issues that it confronts daily.

The government must ensure extremism would not lead to other attacks in the future, he said.

“Security forces must not sleep on the Easter Sunday attacks investigations. We hope investigators will find out the forces that were behind the attacks. We hope that the government would not sweep the investigations into the attack under the carpet for short-term political gain.”

The President and the government had promised the Catholic community a comprehensive investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks, the Cardinal said. The PCoI is only one of the investigations. Other probes by government entities too must continue, the Cardinal said.

“If this is not done our faith in this government will be shattered and we might have to assign other groups to look at the incident. The CID investigation and other such investigations into the attack must go on and the investigation into the Batticaloa Sharia Campus should be a part of these probes.

Sharia might be important for Muslims, but it shouldn’t affect other religious groups in the country, the Archbishop of Colombo said.