Opposition Leader demands release of missing parts of Volume II of PCoI report on Easter terror attacks

By Saman Indrajith

Opposition and SJB leader Sajith Premadasa yesterday in Parliament demanded that missing parts of the Volume II of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which probed the Easter Sunday terror attacks, be made available to the MPs, prior to a scheduled two-day debate on the Channel 4 exposure.

Opposition Leader Premadasa said that though there were reports that the PCoI report had been submitted to Parliament, some parts of them were not made available to the MPs.

“I informed the Parliament library that I need the entire PCoI report. There are two volumes of the report. We should be able to access the first volume and to obtain copies of it, but some of the parts of the second volume are not given to us, especially the parts 2 and 3 of Volume II. It was announced during Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency that we could read Volume II inside the Parliament library but we were not entitled to copies for security reasons.

It is further said that the MPs could read those parts only in the Parliamentary Secretary General’s presence. I demand that the Speaker should ensure that not only I but also all 225 MPs should have access to these reports.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that there was nothing to hide and some parts were not made available as they contained sensitive security information.

SLPP MP Nimal Lanza called on Speaker Abeywardena to release the missing parts of the report. “This is a serious issue. The Speaker could make a decision at the party leaders’ meeting to release these documents,” Lanza said.

Chief Government Whip Urban Development and Housing Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said that the PCoI report had been lying in the library for a lon time and now only the Opposition leader had felt the need to read it. “That shows the Opposition Leader has not read the report fully.”