By Shamindra Ferdinando

SLPP lawmaker Sanjeewa Edirimanne yesterday (9) said a probe had to be held into efforts to divert public attention by blaming 2019 Easter attacks on the then SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa and SLPP founder Basil Rajapaksa.

 Responding to The Island queries after he and several other SLPP lawmakers lodged a complaint at the police headquarters in respect of a statement made by Kurunegala District SJB MP Asoka Abeysinghe over the weekend, the Kalutara District MP asserted that in the wake of the release of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PcoI) report on the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) attacks, the breakaway UNP faction was busy propagating lies.

 Lawmaker Edirimanne said that MP Abeysinghe wasn’t the first Opposition member to direct accusations at the government over the Easter Sunday carnage.

 Last November the CID questioned SJB MP Eran Wickremaratne as regards his accusations. The CID recorded the former UNP State Minister’s statement in the wake of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) lodging a complaint over certain claims he made at a media conference given on Nov 12.

 The CID dealt with the MP’s claim pertaining to the funding of the Easter Sunday attackers, the threat on Easter Sunday bomber Zahran Hashim’s widow Abdul Cader Fathima Hadiya and her being detained at the Tangalle prison.

MP Edirimanne said that ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Tragedy: When the Deep State Gets Out of Its Depth’ authored by Rajan Hoole raised the alleged involvement of some sections of the security apparatus in the 2019 attacks and anti-Muslim violence in May same year. The author asserted that the interested parties carried out Easter Sunday attacks and then inspired violence as part of an overall strategy to help Gotabaya Rajapaksa win the election. The MP said that it had been brought to the notice of security authorities.

Edirimannae alleged that the SJB was now making a desperate bid to distance itself from the Easter Sunday carnage and the UNP.