COLOMBO, Feb 25: Sri Lanka’s criminal investigators on Wednesday arrested the country’s former intelligence chief in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners.
Police said retired Major General Suresh Sallay was taken into custody at dawn in a suburb of Colombo, marking the most high-profile arrest in the long-running investigation, The local media reported.
There have been accusations that Sri Lanka’s former government, led by strongman president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, obstructed the investigation into the country’s deadliest terrorist attack, amid claims that they may have exploited the crisis to aid their return to power.
The Rajapaksa family had dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly a decade from 2005. While they were credited with ending the nation’s 26-year civil war, their tenure was also marked by authoritarian tactics, including the alleged use of “death squads” to silence critics and journalists.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was removed from office in 2015 following allegations of corruption, but the family sought a political comeback in 2019.
Sallay was appointed head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) in 2019 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president, has been accused of involvement in the coordinated suicide bombings, a charge he denied.
On Easter Sunday 2019, six suicide bombers struck churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka, killing 269 people, including eight British tourists (UNI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
