Deputy Inspector General Ajith Rohana said the Police Department is working with the Immigration and Emigration Department on suspect foreign nationals arriving in the country. When asked about the incident mentioned by the Cardinal of two Pakistan nationals filming a Catholic school in Negambo and fled within 24 hours,
DIG Rohana said police are conducting a special programme, with the Immigration and Emigration Department to deal with issue of foreign nationals entering the country with fake visas or overstaying in the country once the visa is expired. “This has happened most with Indian and Pakistan nationals,” he said.
Addressing media at Police headquarters Rohana said 216 suspects have been arrested in connection with Easter Sunday bombings since the time of investigations. “It’s 10 months since the brutal Easter Sunday attacks which occurred on April 21, 2019, the Police together with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) and the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD)), initiated investigations on the same day. Currently, there are 153 suspects in remand, including seven women and police are conducting further investigations,” he said.
“Sri Lanka Police has received assistance from the Interpol, Australian Federal Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of The United States of America to conduct investigations.
“Eleven teams from the CID, TID and CCD are conducting investigations and each team is headed by Assistant Superintendent Police (ASP), 80% of the investigations are done, and another 20 % has to be done based on forensic evidence from telephone calls, internet calls from various apps and emails from the sources. These details have to be investigated, including bank accounts. Some accounts are registered locally, while some overseas”.
He further added, “Indian experts specialised in deradicalisation are training police officers in fighting radicalism here. These police officers will train other officers and will visit areas that are at risk of being radicalised in Sri Lanka,” he said.
Traffic Police head, DIG Ajith Rohana introduced the new Police Media Director and spokesperson SP Jaliya Senaratne who had his first official press conference yesterday.
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