Former president Maithripala Sirisena should have been aware of possible terror attacks on April 21, 2019 before he left the country, former defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando yesterday told the PCoI into the Easter Sunday attacks.
He said Mr. Sirisena's absence in the country and the failure to appoint an acting defence minister to were the reasons why the terror attacks could not be averted.
Mr. Fernando said during his tenure as defence secretary, Mr. Sirisena had never appointed an acting defence minister when he travelled overseas.
Referring to some previous incidents, he said on one occasion Mr. Sirisena had strictly instructed him and the senior police officers not to use water cannons to disperse protest marches without his approval, even when he was not in the country.
"Once after riot squad had dispersed a protest march outside the Presidential Secretariat by using water cannons, Mr. Sirisena called for a sudden meeting with all senior officers at the police department. At the meeting he blamed the officers and said not to use water cannons to disperse protest marches without his approval," Mr. Fernando said.
He said Mr. Sirisena had not given him adequate time to arrange National Security Council (NSC) meetings and this affected security matters.
"During my tenure as defence secretary, Mr. Sirisena had convened NSC meetings suddenly. There was no particular routine to conduct the meetings and only on the day before the meetings did Mr. Sirisena asked me to invite other political and security heads to the meeting," Mr. Fernando said.
He said the former president had never given him any instructions to arrest Zahran Hashim and these matters were opening for direct threats to national security.
(Daily Mirror)