The former government in Sri Lanka, led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is accused of orchestrating the Easter attacks in April 2019 by a whistleblower. The latest accusation regarding the motive behind the attack, which involved six suicide bombers targeting churches and luxury hotels across the country, was made in a documentary for Channel 4’s “Dispatches” program. The Easter bombings in Sri Lanka in 2019, the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the South Asian island, resulted in the deaths of 269 people and shook Sri Lanka from a state of internal peace for the first time since the civil war ended in 2009.
Charges Against Rajapaksa
The whistleblower also alleged that the bombings were planned to “create instability in Sri Lanka” so that Rajapaksa – the most powerful political clan that ruled the country’s economy in the 2010s – could win the presidential elections in 2019, according to a report published by The Guardian. Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the presidential elections in Sri Lanka at the end of 2019. However, in the first half of 2022, Sri Lanka experienced a phase of rare economic instability, partially due to the COVID pandemic and the way Rajapaksa burdened Sri Lanka’s economy with high-interest Chinese loans.
Investigation into the Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka: Five Years Later
Five years later, the investigation has failed to provide any answers regarding how the attacks occurred. No criminal convictions have been achieved so far. Those involved in the investigation and the leader of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka alleged that investigations were sabotaged and obstructed by Rajapaksa’s government. So far, charges have been brought against more than 200 individuals in the investigation. However, no convictions have been made yet. The Sri Lankan government at that time did not clarify how several high-level warnings about the April 2019 Easter attacks, including from Indian intelligence, were ignored. In January, the Supreme Court ordered former President Maithripala Sirisena, who was in power at the time, to pay millions in damages to the victims.
Claims of the Documentary Regarding the Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka
The individual mentioned in Channel 4’s documentary claimed to have helped an intelligence officer with close ties to the Rajapaksa family meet members of the local Islamist group “Zuhriya Jamaati Nasr” that carried out the attack. The person also alleged that the plan was formulated over several years to create an “insecure security situation” that would aid in bringing Rajapaksa back to power. The Rajapaksa family ruled Sri Lanka for nearly a decade starting in 2005. Although they are credited with ending the bloody 26-year civil war, their alleged use of “death squads” to target critics and journalists earned them a notorious reputation. Mahinda Rajapaksa was ousted in 2015 after a backlash against alleged corruption, but the family was planning to return to power in the 2019 elections, this time with the younger brother Gotabaya as the presidential candidate.
Defending Sri Lanka Against Documentary Allegations
After the documentary revelations, the Sri Lankan government stated that it had established a special parliamentary committee to investigate the allegations. The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense defended the country’s intelligence chief in September, saying it “strongly denies the allegation of orchestrating the attack and assisting the bombers against a loyal senior military officer who has served the nation for 36 years.” This announcement came days after former ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa denied the alleged role of senior general Salai in the bombings and that he benefited from the attacks to win the presidential elections in November 2019.
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