Taking responsibility for ‘major lapse’ in intelligence on Easter Sunday, Sri Lanka Defence Secretary steps down

Colombo, April 26: As Sri Lanka reels under the heinous and dastardly coward attack of terrorism, the government is trying hard to bring out the real culprits. The bombing in the churches and hotels on an Easter Sunday has killed at least 253 people and injured around 500 till now.

 

As the Sri Lankan defence had been informed earlier about the possibility of such attacks, the department paid less heed to this. With the attack, the government asked for Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando resignation. The Defence Secretary resigned on Thursday, taking responsibility for what the government earlier termed “a major lapse” in intelligence on the Easter attacks that claimed over 250 lives.

Taking cognizance of the situation it has been noted that Defence Secretary Fernando is the first official to step down. However, both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said they were unaware of the imminent threat, though the security establishment had received prior intelligence.

The situation in Sri Lanka has intensified as the serial bombing has gripped the island in shock and grief. The police and security forces are conducting checks at major cities and search operations are underway based a warning of a potential explosion. However, barring a blast at at a vacant plot near the magistrate’s court in Pugoda town, 40 km away from Colombo, there were no other incidents.

It is unclear how much headway investigators have made in the probe, but late on Wednesday, security forces, using Emergency powers, nabbed 16 persons with possible links to the blasts. Over 60 suspects are already being interrogated. Colombo’s streets remained mostly empty on Thursday.

The Islamic State had claimed responsibility of the attack. The security forces during the investigation suspected the same as the series of bombing highlighted the way ISIS carries out attack. Apart from this, the apex body of Muslim community has advised the women to not wear burqas as it may hinder national security.