By Saman Indrajith

SJB parliamentarian Harin Fernando says that he will reveal the names of those who masterminded and funded the Zahran Hashim’s outfit that carried out the terror attacks during the parliamentary debate on the Presidential Commission of Inquiry report on the Easter Sunday carnage, scheduled for Wednesday (10).

“Everybody knows those responsible for their failure to take action to prevent the terror attacks. What is missing in the report is who actually masterminded and orchestrated the carnage. We know who really is responsible and I am going to reveal the names”, he said in an interview with The Sunday Island.

Asked why he had so far refrained from naming those responsible, he replied: “I am in a situation where I would be hauled up and put behind bars even if I violate a simple traffic law. But I can reveal the names in Parliament. I would do so during the debate.

Excerpts:

Q: Diverse views have been expressed on the report of the presidential commission on the 2019 April 21st attacks. What is the official position of your party?

A team of our party members including its General Secretary Ranjith Maddumabandara and Niroshan Perera have seriously studied the matter. We have not received the report in its entirety. We have been given only one volume of the report. The other volumes have not even been placed in the parliament library. If we are to form a conclusive opinion, we need the entire report. My name has also been connected to the incidents because my father had been informed of the attacks by one of his friends.

I was questioned for about five hours. The investigators had found out the details of my telephone conversations etc. Anyone reading the report in full including my testimony can understand what we actually knew at the time. The volume so far released contains observations, conclusions and summaries. Even Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has stated that an incomplete report is not acceptable and our position is the same. There are stories of Zahran’s foreign visits. In 2018, Zahran had gone to another country. It seems that the full report could answer what the country was and how many visits he had made, whom he had met and the purpose of his visit. How could we form a correct opinion without knowing all these vital details which we believe are included in the volumes not released so far.

Even a child knows who shirked their duties to prevent the tragedy. We do not need a commission to find that. What the country wants to know is the man who organized and masterminded the attacks. This attack seems to be a contract taken by Zahran’s outfit. The country wants to know who gave the contract. Zahran is not the mastermind behind the attack because he was among those who exploded themselves.

Finally all I have to say about the report of the PCoI is that I am not satisfied because it is not complete and failed to name those responsible. We know that the man who orchestrated that attack is still around and living a comfortable life. This government came to power promising to punish the culprit of the Easter Sunday attacks irrespective of their position. That has not happened.

Q: A Black Sunday has been declared and the Cardinal has asked people to join demanding justice. Some people are going to put up black flags. Is your party too supporting it?

The Black Sunday commemoration is a decision made by the Roman Catholic Church. Catholics coming to the Church on Sunday have been asked to wear black. It is not a protest where you holding placards along the roads, as far as I know. Anyone who go to Church could wear any colours but on this particular day, they have been asked to wear in black. There would be prayer. In our religion it is considered that the prayer is more powerful when done together than separately. On Sunday, there would be such an event. The prayers are to seek God’s intervention for justice. The prayers are to be conducted on March 7 and I hope that by April 21 our prayers would be answered. Right from the beginning, I said that we cannot expect justice from anyone except from God. Now what I said has been proven true. We cannot expect justice from commissions or political leaders who are ‘double acting’.