The attacks, which included simultaneous suicide bombings, targeted three churches and three tourist hotels. The dead included 42 foreigners from 14 countries.President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s decision to appoint a committee headed by a judge to investigate claims that Sri Lankan intelligence had a hand in the bombings that were carried out by Islamic militants came under pressure from opposition lawmakers, religious leaders, activists as well as the victims’ relatives.
The committee’s primary mission is to investigate the “serious allegations recently brought to light by Channel 4 in a broadcast video,” the president’s office said in a statement Sunday. It said that the “allegations have added fuel to the fire.”The statement said that a former attorney general “has made similar claims, suggesting the existence of a mastermind behind the devastating Easter bomb attack.
In a program broadcast Tuesday, Channel 4 interviewed a man who said had arranged a meeting between a local Islamic State-inspired group, National Thowheed Jamath, and a top state intelligence official loyal to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to formulate a plot to create instability and enable Rajapaksa, a former senior defense official, to win the 2019 presidential election.
Rajapaksa was forced to resign in mid-2022 after mass protests over the country’s worst economic crisis. Rajapaksa on Thursday denied the allegations against him, saying that the claim that “a group of Islamic extremists launched suicide attacks in order to make me president is absurd.”
Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: sdut - 🏆 5. / 95 Read more »
Source: ksatnews - 🏆 442. / 53 Read more »
Source: wjxt4 - 🏆 246. / 63 Read more »
Source: AP - 🏆 728. / 51 Read more »