Former Sri Lankan spy chief Suresh Sallay arrested in probe into 2019 Easter bombings that killed 279 people
COLOMBO: The arrest of a former Sri Lankan spy chief was a crucial step towards unravelling the conspiracy behind the 2019 Easter bombings that killed 279 people, the Catholic Church in the country said Thursday.
“If the current investigations by the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) are allowed to continue without political interference, we will soon uncover the conspiracy,” church spokesman Father Cyril Gamini Fernando told reporters.
Sri Lankan investigators on Wednesday arrested retired Major General Suresh Sallay, the most high-profile official netted in the long-running investigation into the bombings.
Nine suicide bombers were involved in the coordinated strikes that hit two Roman Catholic churches, an evangelical Protestant church, and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019.
“We know that over 100 people have been questioned, but the latest arrest will help shed more light on the case,” said Fernando.
He also urged opposition parties to allow the CID to complete its probe without interference after they condemned Sallay’s arrest.
“Some people are making a lot of noise because the investigators are getting closer to the truth,” Fernando said.
“That is why some people have got very agitated.”
The church had earlier accused former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa of sabotaging CID investigations after coming to power on the back of the bombings.
Two days after the bombings, Rajapaksa, a retired army officer, declared his candidacy and went on to win the November election in a landslide after promising to stamp out Islamist extremism.
A jihadist group told reporters in 2019 that they were originally funded by a military intelligence unit to propagate a fundamentalist ideology in Sri Lanka’s multi-ethnic Eastern Province.
Sallay was employed in the same intelligence unit that funded the jihadists, and the government at the time admitted that the military was behind the radical groups.
More than 500 people were wounded in the bombings, which crippled the island nation’s lucrative tourism industry.
