-By Sanjaya Dassanayake
(Lanka-e-News -25.Feb.2026, 11.00 PM) Former head of Sri Lanka's State Intelligence Service, retired Major General Tuan Suresh Saley, was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department in Peliyagoda this morning (25) based on strong evidence revealed during investigations related to the Easter attacks that took place on 21 April 2019.
Suresh Saley was arrested under the Temporary Provisions for the Prevention of Terrorism Act and will be detained for 72 hours for questioning, and a ninety-day detention order is to be obtained, the police said at a special media briefing held today.
The investigation is being conducted based on evidence that the group led by Saharan Hashim, who carried out the Easter Sunday terrorist attack, was supported and sheltered, leading to the Easter Sunday terrorist attack. It is said that information related to Saley has also been revealed from Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, who is already in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department. The Pillayan group has also been identified as another armed group that operated under the auspices of the military and intelligence groups, including Suresh Saley.
Serious allegations had been made against Suresh Saley for failing to prevent the attack despite having sufficient intelligence to prevent it, obstructing the investigation into the attack in various ways, or deliberately concealing important information.
In addition, the facts presented by foreign media outlets such as Britain's Channel 4 and various local parties directly pointing fingers at Suresh Saleh regarding the planned background of this attack are also said to have been a major reason for this arrest and the in-depth investigations being conducted through it. The statements made by Asad Maulana to Channel 4 are also a key piece of evidence relevant to the investigation.
Azad Maulana, a former media secretary of the Tamil Makkal Vidutthalai Puligaal (TMVP) party, made a powerful revelation on Britain's Channel 4. He said that before the 2019 Easter attacks, he coordinated a meeting in 2018 between Suresh Saley, then an intelligence chief, and Saharan Hashim, the alleged mastermind of the Easter attacks.
The Channel 4 documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings’ aired in the UK made a number of very serious and controversial allegations regarding the Easter attacks. The main point raised was that the attacks were not simply the work of an extremist group, but were the result of a planned political conspiracy aimed at creating large-scale insecurity and instability in the country in order to gain power in Sri Lanka at that time.
In particular, Azad Maulana alleged through the program that Suresh Saley, who was an intelligence officer at the time, directly intervened in leading the group led by Saharan Hashim and providing them with the necessary facilities. Furthermore, the revelation further indicated that after the attack, efforts were made to suppress the true information and politically protect it by not allowing the investigation to be carried out properly.
In addition, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had given evidence to the Presidential Special Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks at the time of the attacks, removing the media from the scene. He had said that he knew Suresh Saley well. He had listened carefully to him when he spoke about the East. Wickremesinghe had said that Suresh Saleh had been involved in forming Muslim groups against the LTTE in the past and that he had provided security assistance to a number of groups.
Meanwhile, on September 21, 2023, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka also expressed his views regarding Suresh Saley in Parliament.
"He has stated during his testimony to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that telephone messages etc. were exchanged between Saley and Saharan since around 2012. Saharan started being paid by the intelligence department after the end of the war. It was probably only after 2010 that Saharan started working with the intelligence department. There was no dealings between him and us during the war. Things that happened after 2010. General Saley was very close to the former military officer Hendavitharana and Gotabaya Rajapaksa. At that time, Saley was acting as the head of the State Intelligence Department. Therefore, he must have had knowledge of these things. After Saley became the DMI in 2013, dealings with Saharan were free. It was in 2013 that Saley became the head of the Military Intelligence Department. He continued to have Gotabaya's blessings. During the war, he had been put aside from the Intelligence department by me. He had been included in the intelligence department because he could speak Tamil. But since he was a man who talked and did not work, I put him aside and worked. But Gotabaya Rajapaksa, after I left the army, acted as a confidant and became close to him. After Saley became DMI, by 2014, Saharan's actions in the Eastern Province became very bad. ..... On the day of the 2010 presidential election, bombs started exploding in Vavuniya and the Batticaloa areas of the Eastern Province. Saley did this in Vavuniya. Saley was in Vavuniya at that time."
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by (2026-02-26 04:27:52)
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