Former Inspector General of Police N.K. Illangakoon testifying before the Parliament Select Committee said that when information surfaced of Sri Lankans migrating to Syria to join the ISIS in 2015, he constituted a committee that met weekly to discuss what he describes as a ‘dangerous trend’.
“Although there was no concrete evidence to suggest the existence of extremism in 2014, in March 2015 we came to know of a Sri Lankan who had died fighting for ISIS.
Based on this information, we came to the realization that there was a dangerous trend,” he said. “During the latter part of 2015, we came to know that there were five other people who had migrated with nearly 35 other family members to join the ranks of ISIS. I conveyed this at the time to the Security Council.” “When the situation began to get worse, I took many steps as the IGP. I informed the state Intelligence Service that this was a dangerous trend and the SIS should be taking action on it,” he said. “A committee was tasked with finding information.
The committee was headed by the DIG and they met weekly to dissect information. I summoned them monthly to talk of the pre-emptive actions that were taken.” The former IGP was questioned on the state of the intelligence unit adding that there had been reports it had been weakened due to the issues faced by a handful of officers. “As a police force, we should always have a replacement if an officer vacates his post or is unavailable. If a police officer was to die, we cannot shut down the organization, the second in line takes his place. That process should be there and it should come into effect by default.”
(Daily News)