Former SIS Director blames his superiors for not acting on intelligence conveyed to them

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The State Intelligence Service (SIS)  had not been aware that National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) had direct links to the ISIS, by the time it received information from a foreign source warning of a possible terrorist attack on April 09, 2019, former SIS Director SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena yesterday told the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks.

SDIG Jayawardena made this statement while being cross-examined by Anura Meddegoda, PC, who appeared for former IGP Pujith Jayasundara.

However, the SIS had found that the NTJ had the intention to carry out a terrorist attack and stressed on the need to arrest NTJ activists, on several occasions, SDIG Jayawardena said.

A commissioner then asked SDIG Jayawardena whether it had occurred to him to ask former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando to summon the National Security Council (NSC) or to contact former President Maithripala Sirisena over the intelligence warning of a suicide attack by Zahran and his associates.

SDIG Jayawardena said that he had not made such a request and had no authority to summon the Security Council. “However, I informed the Defence Secretary, the CNI, the IGP, and heads of various specialist security units like the DMI, the CID, the TID, etc.”

“It did not cross my mind to tell the Former Defence Secretary to summon the NSC or inform the former President. All I wanted was to stop the attacks. That was the only thing on my mind at that moment. That’s why I told officials with the necessary powers to act.”