Cardinal accuses some leaders of using Easter attacks for political benefit

“God almighty has started to expose those responsible”

By Norman Palihawadane

His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith on Friday said that it was now clearly evident that certain leaders used the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks for their political advantage.

“It is clear that these attacks were a conspiracy,” he told a national prayer service held at the Basilica of Our Lady of Lanka at Tewatte in Ragama to mark 1,000th day of Easter Sunday terror attacks.

“The 2019 April Attacks may be over. But, today we can see that those in powerful places are attempting to put the entire blame on Muslim extremists and cover up the truth. However, the truth is now coming out. Many tried to cover up the truth and they failed to do so.

“God Almighty has started to expose those who are responsible for this. The Parliamentary Select Committee in its findings said that Intelligence that only a few people were privy to, was not shared with relevant parties. The Parliamentary Select Committee on State Intelligence has highlighted serious concerns over this,” he said.

“The Parliamentary Select Committee has also called for further investigations to determine if action was not taken on the intelligence received that claimed that persons with vested interests were attempting to incite fear, uncertainty, and turmoil in the country targeting the elections that were to be held later that year (2019),” he said quoting from the PSC report in his address.

He said it is now even more clear that persons with vested interests had ulterior objectives that they concealed the fact they were aware of the intelligence and did nothing to save the lives, and also prevented those from taking action to prevent the attacks well.

“Such events will lead to a call for a change in government to control acts of terror by inciting fear among the people. This report suggests that the attacks were used to win votes at the election,” he said.

The service was attended by the survivors of the suicide bomb attacks at Katuwapitiya and Kochchikade churches as well as the family members of the victims.