COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s president has sacked the national intelligence chiefand will not cooperate with a parliamentary investigation into securitylapses before the Easter suicide bombings, officials said Saturday.
Maithripala Sirisena summoned an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday nightto oppose a parliamentary select committee probe into the April 21 attacksthat killed 258 people, including 45 foreigners, and wounded nearly 500.
Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis was sacked after testifying tothe inquiry last week that the attacks could have been averted.
He also said the president had failed to hold regular security meetings toassess the threat from Islamic radicals who carried out the bombings onthree hotels and three churchs.
Sirisena’s office did not give a reason for the sacking. Halfway throughthe testimony, the live telecast of the proceedings was stopped on thepresident’s orders, official sources said.
A ministerial source told AFP Sirisena has refused to allow any police,military or intelligence personnel to testify before the committee.
The source added that the heated cabinet meeting ended “inconclusively”without taking a decision on whether to suspend the parliament probe.
Sirisena’s office did not comment on the meeting, but said the presidenthad told senior police officers on Friday that he will not allow anyserving officer to testify.
Sirisena’s defence secretary and police chief have suggested that thepresident, who is also defence minister, did not follow proper protocols indealing with intelligence warnings about the Easter Sunday bombings.
Sirisena has repeatedly denied he was aware of an impending threat.
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A local jihadist organisation and the Islamic State group claimedresponsibility for the attacks. The country has been under a state ofemergency since the bombings.
Sirisena said last week that he met with the national police chief and histop brass 13 days before the attacks but no officer raised warnings passedon by India and based on information from a detained jihadist.
The crisis erupted ahead of a visit to Sri Lanka by Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Sunday.
The Indian premier is to make a brief stopover in Colombo on his returnfrom an official visit to the Maldives on Saturday.
The Sri Lankan government has admitted there were intelligence failuresbefore the attacks.
Sirisena suspended police chief Pujith Jayasundara and dismissed his topdefence official Hemasiri Fernando after the bombings.
Sirisena has repeatedly denied he was aware of an impending threat. -APP/AFP
