CID’s former Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne testifying for the first time before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) probing Easter Sunday attacks said that according to the investigation carried out by the CID, he suspects that there should be someone above Easter Sunday attacks mastermind Zahran Hashim.
Testifying further he said that investigations had revealed that the suicide bombers including Zahran Hashim had planned to carry out this attack in 2020.
Testifying before the Commission regarding incidents where the CID conducted investigations such as two police officers killed at Vavunathivu roadblock, demolition of Buddha statues at Mawanella, finding an estate Wanathawillu where a stock of explosives in was buried, Seneviratne for the first time revealed several other plans the bombers had in mind.
“Four persons were taken into custody by the CID in Wanathawillu, two of them were interrogated at length. It was there that the CID first came to know about Zahran Hashim. Thereafter, a report was submitted to the IGP on the findings of Wanathawillu on January 5, 2019. We met the IGP and had discussions.There he was informed that this had been maintained as an armoury and training camp and also informed the IGP that they had manufactured the explosives using chemicals and that a terrorist attack could take place in the future due to this.The IGP said that he was not summoned to the National Security Council at that time. Therefore, I understand that this information will not be passed on to the Security Council,”he said.
He also admitted that he did not seek the Attorney General’s advice in recommending the Defence Minister to release two of the four suspects arrested in connection with the discovery of a stock of explosives in the Wanathawilluwa area in Puttalam.
Testifying further he said that investigations had revealed that Zahran had been active since 2014 but had been preparing for an attack since 2017. It was only when groups could not be formed that Shahid was told to throw even a stone at a Buddha statue by Zahran. Then in lectures Zahran asked if anyone wanted to be a fighter or an attacker. When Zahran had gone out of the country, the group had discussed about going to another country without being in this country and carrying out explosions. But Zahran comes back and motivates them to launch attacks in the country itself. Accordingly, they had planned to carry out this attack in 2020. But by the first week of April 2019, Zahran abruptly changed his mind, saying:”We need to launch an attack now.” The rest of the group did not agree, but by April 17, they had decided to launch an attack on Easter Sunday. With things like the sudden change of dates, I realized that there should be someone to be above him. Before I retired, I wanted to find the man who led Zahran,”he said. At this moment, the Senior State Counsel wrote a note to the witness and presented the name of a person.
Ravi Seneviratne stated that he could be the person mentioned in the note and that there was information that Zahran had worked with that person.
“They had prepared a place for someone to come if they failed on the day of the attack. It is a Mosque in Colombo. The unsuspecting assailant arrives and tells someone else that he was there. Accordingly, another person arrives to pick up the assailant. The plan was to move them to a safeer place.”
The witness also wrote down the name of the person who had been deployed to take away the unsuspecting assailants and presented it to the Presidential Commission stating that the person concerned had been arrested.
The Presiding Judge of the Commission asked from Seneviratne that after the attack, MP Harin Fernando had told the media that his father had told him the day before the attack not to attend mass for Easter. According to the evidence presented to the Commission, Police Sergeant Nandalal, who was conducting investigations in Mawanella and Wanathawilluwa by the CID, had received a telephone call from Harin Fernando’s father on the night of April 20. According to the evidence, it is possible that Nandalal had given the message to Harin Fernando’s father regarding an attack. If that is the case, how can CID officers know that there will be an attack on April 20 night? ”
Responding to the query he said that “I do not know how this officer Nandalal had got the information, but SIS Director Nilantha Jayawardena informed me on April 20 night that an attack will take place tomorrow. I had immediately forwarded that information to ASP Wickramasekara and then CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekara.”
He said that on the morning of April 21, 2019, he received a text message from the Director of the State Intelligence Service, Nilantha Jayewardene, stating that there could be an attack within a very short period of time and that he had seen the text message after the bombing.
