The Government would bring all culprits who planned, financed and supported the Easter bombing carnage that killed over 270 and wounded over 500 innocent people on last year’s Easter Sunday, soon, Defense Secretary Major General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne said Tuesday.
Issuing a statement to mark the one-year of the coordinated bomb blasts carried out by a local Islamic extremist group on three Christian churches and three hotels in Colombo, he said there would not be any space for any group or individuals to spread extremism in the country.
“We will bring all those who involved in those bomb blasts, irrespective of their social status, political affiliations, ethnicity or religion to book,” Major General Gunaratne said referring to the on-going investigations into Easter Sunday attacks.
He said under the leadership of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had pledged to give the top most priority to national security, country’s people would be protected from terrorism and extremism.
“We will not let our people to die and suffer in such unfortunate incidents. We have taken all precautionary measures to identify such acts of terrorism or extremism at early stages and taken all necessary actions to bring them before the law,” the Defense Secretary said.
Highlighting the importance of public support and contribution of the intelligence agencies in curbing extremism, he said under the directives of the President the intelligence agencies had been strengthened under a system that brought all intelligence agencies in the country into a one fold.
“The Government will do the justice for the people, including the children, who died and living with deadly scares and their families by punishing the culprits and also strengthening the national security,” he said.
Major General Gunaratne said according to an assessment done by the President Secretariat and Defense Ministry, the Easter Sunday bomb blasts occurred year was mainly due to negligence to maintain national security.
Courtesy: Colombo Page
