By Shamindra Ferdinando

The founding Director General of the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) Asanga Abeyagoonasekera says the then Chief of State Intelligence Service (SIS) Senior DIG Nilantha Jayawardana had received the final warning about the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks from an Indian with diplomatic status based at the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

Abeygoonasekera, in an exclusive interview with Chamuditha Samarwickrema recently on ‘Truth with Chamuditha’ quoted the Indian as having told him intelligence on the impending blasts would have been shared if he knew Abeygoonasekera was planning to visit Shangri La.

Abeygoonasekera was about to press the button of a lift in Shangri La when the first of the two blasts ripped through the hotel. One time Executive Director of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS) had been with his wife and two children.

Shangri La blasts claimed the lives of 35 persons and wounded 34.

Abeygoonasekera alleged that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI) that inquired into the Easter attacks prevented him from naming the Indian.

Claiming that he knew the diplomat for some time, Abeygoonasekera questioned how the Indian intelligence had prior information of the date of the operation unless someone within Zahran Hashim’s outfit worked for them.

Zahran Hashim and Ilham Ahmed carried out attacks in Shangrila.

Abeygoonasekera said that when he asked for an explanation as to how India got to know about the date of the suicide attacks, the Indian HC representative attributed their success to examination of accidental explosion in Sainthamaruthu in the East. Abeygoonasekera said that Indian claimed the accidental blast that had wrecked a motorcycle led them to get specific information.

Abeygoonasekera agreed with interviewer Samarawickrema the diplomat’s claim was not acceptable.

However, Abeygoonasekera appeared to have mistakenly referred to a blast at Sainthamaruthu in the run up to the April 21 suicide attacks whereas the actual test blast took place at Kattankudy on April 16.

Abeygoonasekera now functions as the Senior Advisor to Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.

The young academic alleged that in the wake of 2019 Easter attacks the yahapalana government sought to move him out of INSSSL. Asserting that an influential section of the previous administration wanted him out of that position in the wake of him raising the failure on the part of the then President Maithripala Sirisena to act on a missive sent by him as regards heightened threat posed by extremists.

Declaring that he raised the issue at the National Security Council following the Easter Sunday blasts, Abeygoonasekera admitted that he was not sure whether the President actually received his report exclusively prepared for him though it was submitted through the Secretary, Ministry of Defence.

Pressed for a definite answer, Abeygoonasekera said that when he inquired from President Sirisena, the latter claimed he never received it.

Abeygoonasekera claimed that however, Senior DIG Jayawardena had told him how President Sirisena discarded the report expressing concerns about causing an unnecessary issue.

Abeygoonasekera, the only son of assassinated SLMP leader Ossie Abeygoonasekera recalled how President Sirisena created INSSSL by a cabinet paper. The SLMP leader was killed in an LTTE suicide attack on UNP presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake’s political platform at Thotalanga in Oct 1994.

The academic contested Gampaha district at the 2015 general election on the UNP ticket.

Asanga Abeygoonasekera questioned whether the powers that be felt uncomfortable as a result of him disputing the then administration’s response to the extremist threat. According to him, in his capacity as the DG, INSSSL, he authored a report warning the President of the impending threat soon after the police raided extremists’ hideout at Wanathawilluwa in January 2019.

Responding to interviewer, Abeygoonasekera said that after the 2019 presidential election he was told of a diplomatic posting at the Sri Lankan mission in Germany. On an assurance received from the cabinet by way of a letter, Abeygoonasekera quit the INSSSL to pave the way for the incumbent Foreign Secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage to take over that post. However, the diplomatic posting hadn’t materialized as promised, Abeygoonasekera said, adding that though he brought the development to the notice of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa the government didn’t take remedial measures.

After the change of government in 2015 the then Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera had removed Abeygoonasekera from LKIIRSS though the same government created INSSSL later to accommodate him.

Commenting on former Attorney General Dappula de Livera, PC’s declaration soon before his retirement in May this year that the Easter Sunday carnage was a conspiracy, Abeygoonasekera explained how the perpetrators would have chosen Sri Lanka to carry out the operation. Abeygoonasekera made reference to high level Indian delegation visiting Colombo just ahead of the Easter carnage.

The Catholic Church has repeatedly asked the government to inquire into the former AG’s claim though he was yet to be questioned.

According to the Parliamentary Select Committee that inquired into the suicide blasts that claimed the lives of 277, including bombers and caused injuries to 406 persons.

Abeygoonasekera strongly questioned the conduct of the then SIS Chief Senior DIG Jayawardena. In spite of President Sirisena’s specific instructions, Jayawardena conveniently refrained from making available certain letters written by Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara thera regarding extremist activities. The SIS Chief withheld those letters claiming they had previously examined the matters discussed therein, Abeygoonasekera said.

Abeygoonasekera declined to blame any particular country though he expressed the belief Indian, US and China factors should be examined thoroughly. The academic lamented the failure on the part of successive administrations to probe how the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) received the required funding. Asked whether the perpetrators could be identified, Abeygoonasekera quoted a foreign expert as having told him perhaps in about 20 to 30 years.

Referring to a discussion he had with Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Abeygoonasekera said that the Church suspected a certain country, though he didn’t want to disclose the Archbishop’s suspicions. Abeygoonaekera said that all agreed that there was an external power behind the Easter Sunday carnage.

Declaring that President Sirisena, who had held the defence portfolio at the time of the deadly carnage didn’t benefit at all, Abeygoonasekera blamed the ‘Deep State’ for the heinous operation. When repeatedly asked by the interviewer, Abeygoonasekera admitted that his reference to experts in Singapore receiving the attention of the P CoI was about Prof. Rohan Gunaratne now with the INSSSL.

Abeygoonasekera said that the conduct of the then SIS Chief was very suspicious as he in spite of being the recipient of specific intelligence didn’t take tangible measures to thwart the attacks.