By Shamindra Ferdinando

Former Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, yesterday (22) said that a genuine effort should be made to ascertain why the first warning regarding Sri Lankan extremists’ direct link with ISIS was ignored by Parliament.

“Those who are harping on Easter Sunday masterminds and grand conspiracies have conveniently forgotten that the alleged link was exposed in Parliament on Nov, 18, 2016, by me in my then capacity as Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Minister,” Dr Rajapakshe said .

The one-time President of the Bar Association said that he had made that declaration after confirming the developing situation with the then head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).

Dr. Rajapakshe said that “instead of immediately launching an investigation, the Yahapalana government targeted me.” The former Minister named the then Cabinet spokesman Dr. Rajitha Senarathna as one of the culprits who had publicly dismissed the warning he had issued in Parliament.

“The truth is the top Yahapalana leadership, particularly Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, lacked the courage to go ahead with an investigation as almost all Muslim MPs, irrespective of the parties they represented, demanded my removal from the Cabinet-of-Ministers,” the ex-MP said.

The former Minister said that his disclosure in Parliament, regarding a group of 32 Muslims, from four affluent families, joining ISIS, also contributed to his removal from Cabinet in late August 2017 after he opposed handing over of the Hambantota Port to China, on a 99-year lease, for USD 1.2 bn.

Rajapakshe alleged that he hadn’t received the backing of any MP though, at one point, John Seneviratne, who represented the Joint Opposition at the Constitutional Council, agreed with him the developing extremist threat was such that Pujith Jayasundera was incapable of handling the situation.

The former lawmaker said that he opposed Jayasundera’s appointment as the IGP, made in April 2016, even before his explosive revelation in Parliament, as the extremist threat was growing.

The President’s Counsel said that following his disclosure in Parliament, the then President called for a briefing from the then Director of State Intelligence Service (SIS) DIG Nilantha Jayawardena. “I was also present at the National Security Council meeting when the SIS Chief declared that there was no basis for my warning. Obviously the President and the Premier accepted the SIS Chief’s assertion.”

The former Minister said that the ongoing Easter Sunday cases, numbering over 40, could be undermined if the powers that be played politics with the issues at hand.

During P CoI proceedings, the inquiry had been told that the police sought the Attorney General’s Department advice regarding Zahran Hashim’s activities, particularly in the East, in June 2017, but the matter was never addressed till the Easter Sunday blasts in April 2017, the ex-MP said.

If police perused media reports, since the disclosure made in Parliament in Nov. 2016, those who opposed the ISIS exposure could be easily identified, he said.

Could the NPP government explain the circumstances the father of two of the seven suicide bombers had been included in its National List at the 2015 general election? the former Minister asked.

Former AG Dappula de Livera, PC, too, should explain why he refused to cooperate with the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) after having called the Easter Sunday attacks a grand conspiracy on the eve of his retirement on May 24, 2021, the former Minister said. “I wanted the police to record his statement as his claim threatened to undermine the entire investigation,” the ex-Minister said, adding that the Easter Sunday carnage could have been averted if major political parties and groups adopted a common stand against extremism.

Rajapakshe pointed out that even after the detection of explosives at Wanathawilluwa, in mid 2019, the Yahapalana government continued to shield extremist elements.