-By Russel Hewawasam
(Lanka-e-News - 20.Sep.2025, 11.20 PM) Seventy-seven months have passed since the Easter Sunday massacres, yet the pursuit of justice has been a stumbling, uneven journey.
The coordinated bombings were never the work of “lone extremists” alone. They were, in truth, a carefully engineered assault designed to usher Gotabaya Rajapaksa—a man with blood-stained credentials—into power. Had the constitutional coup plotted by the Sirisena–Rajapaksa axis in 2018 succeeded, it is unlikely that Zaharan Hashim’s fanatical network would ever have been unleashed in such a manner.
Over the years, this newspaper has documented in detail the duplicitous role played by former president Maithripala Sirisena—mockingly known as “Kebara Sira” (Scorpion Sira) for the string of lies he has told about the bombings. Yet, despite the evidence, the Criminal Investigation Department has thus far refrained from questioning him. That this remains the case even under the present National People’s Power government is a matter of national regret.
Sirisena himself has openly admitted—albeit with characteristic slipperiness—that his fateful trip to Singapore on the eve of the bombings was undertaken on the advice of former State Intelligence Chief Nilantha Jayawardena and Army officer Suresh Salley. His statements, often contradictory, provide the clearest window into the murky political hands behind the atrocity. If properly interrogated, Sirisena’s words could unravel the domestic political conspiracy that shadowed Easter Sunday.
The appointment of Nilantha Jayawardena as intelligence head, under Sirisena’s watch, was not happenstance. It was, in fact, part of a broader Rajapaksa-aligned project to engineer Gotabaya’s return to power. Jayawardena won Sirisena’s trust only to serve a higher loyalty: working hand in glove with Suresh Salley.
Sirisena was deceived with promises of his own political resurrection—that after the bombings and the chaos they unleashed, he would be reinstalled as either president or prime minister. To this end, he secretly planned trips to India and then Singapore, bypassing both cabinet and parliament. Again, Jayawardena and Salley were the invisible architects of these moves.
Further questioning could draw on the testimony of Sirisena’s own relative by marriage, Thilina Suranjith, who may hold key insights into these arrangements.
As the NPP government marks its first year—having pledged to dismantle Rajapaksa impunity—it must turn its gaze squarely on Sirisena’s past statements. Only by interrogating him thoroughly can the state bring reality to the public’s demand for justice.
To guide investigators, six key steps are evident:
Examine Sirisena’s deliberate obstruction of the parliamentary select committee appointed to investigate the bombings.
Reinvestigate the imprisonment of senior TID officer Nalaka Silva, based on the testimony of Namal Kumara.
Re-question former police chief Pujith Jayasundara.
Subject the full set of Sirisena’s recorded phone calls—already in the possession of ex-Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando—to detailed scrutiny.
Probe Sirisena’s private threat to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in which he vowed to reveal all secrets about the bombings if harassed.
Begin interrogations with Sirisena himself, then move swiftly to Salley and Gotabaya.
The Rajapaksa “deep state” remains operational. Faced with mounting legal challenges, it is not beyond their capacity to orchestrate another national calamity. The masterminds still roam free, and therein lies the danger.
That is why questioning Maithripala Sirisena cannot be postponed any longer. If justice is not pursued with urgency, Sri Lanka risks stumbling once again into catastrophe.
-By Russel Hewawasam
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by (2025-09-20 18:25:52)
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