Former Sri Lankan Premier - Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing Easter Sunday attacks had to acknowledge that 'he was not informed.'
He said thus during an interview with WION TV of India.
He also said that there was no finding against any of the ministers from the United National Party (UNP).
“The full report is not out yet. But, the commission had to acknowledge that I was not informed. There is no finding against any of the ministers from the United National Party (UNP). So, We have really not been in it. We have been outside,” he said.
No NSC meetings after October
He also said that the then president Maithripala Sirisena had not convened National Security Council meetings after the political crisis in October 2018.
“After he dismissed me as Prime Minister, when Mahinda Rajapaksa was made prime minister for 52 days he did not invite him for the meeting either,” Wickremesinghe told an interview with a foreign media outlet.
He pointed out that the former president had only summoned ministerial meetings afterwards.
Mr. Wickremesinghe refused the accusations made by the Commission for showing a lax attitude to Islamic extremism.
Haven't tolerated extremism and I won't
Mr. Wickremesinghe refused the accusations made by the Commission for showing a lax attitude to Islamic extremism.
“No, after the Paris bombing, I got the police to start a religious extremism unit which followed all the extremism. There was a separate group investigating these matters. Secondly, I was drafting a new counter-terrorism law. We got help from the UK. Thirdly, whenever the security forces brought up these matters... or the police... I said, take action, track down hard but first consult the Attorney General or get legal advice. Otherwise, you will get caught up in a series of cases instead of doing investigations... If you go by the criteria of political responsibility or the criteria of criminal responsibility, there is no such thing as called lax attitude. How do you judge an attitude? Whether you are lax or not. I do not know. I certainly haven't tolerated extremism and I won't,” he said.
(Mirror)