SL not safe, fanatical IS ideology exists – Public Security Minister

By Saman Indrajith

The country is not safe from the ISIS threat as long as the last terrorist believing in that fanatical ideology exists, says Public Security Minister Rear Admiral (retd.) Sarath Weerasekera.

Speaking to journalists at the auditorium of the Ministry of Highways, the minister said that the ISIS terrorist who had carried out a recent knife attack in New Zealand would have committed that crime here if the New Zealand authorities had deported him to Sri Lanka.

“We actually need the support of Muslim people to identify those terror elements within their community. They should pass whatever information that they come across to the law enforcement agencies. We have made our intelligence units stronger.

Highways Minister Johnston Fernando, asked to comment on a recent press conference given by a group of millers led by former President Maithripala Sirisena’s brother, Dudley, said: “It is good that Dudley Sirisena came out openly and told that it was he who controlled the prices of paddy and rice. So far people were talking of a rice mafia and the government had been blaming the rice mafia, whose members had not been seen. Now, everybody can see who did what. It is always good when people know the truth and exact faces”