Pahan Wijesekera and Udayanthi Munasingha Courtesy Ceylon Today

President’s Counsel Shamil J. Perera, the private lawyer for Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, yesterday (14), submitted 34 documents along with affidavits which had been signed with witness statements by the Cardinal to the new five-member Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena to probe the Easter Sunday carnage.

Sources said that the documents submitted to the Commission by the private lawyer for the Cardinal had included information that was not in possession of the Government in connection with the Easter Sunday carnage.

The documents had contained information regarding the exact number of victims that perished in the attacks that took place at the Katuwapitiya and Kochchikade Churches, the exact number of victims injured in the blasts and the exact number of victims rendered disabled by the bombings.

This information had been compiled by Priest Director of the ‘Sethsarana’ Social Service Institute which is under the purview of Cardinal Ranjith.

Also included in the documents had been written information, known to the Cardinal in connection with the basis for the incidents that took place on 21 April.

Furthermore, the details regarding children who had lost their parents in the terror attacks and pregnant women who had lost their husbands had also been included in the documents that had been submitted to the Commission.

Among the other details affixed to the documents by the Parish Priests of the two aforesaid Churches, had been photos of all victims from the carnage, including written proof and around 250 affidavits from those who had been wounded in the blasts.

Furthermore, also included in the documents had been the affidavits containing eight pages and a lengthy description about links between the damages caused to the Buddha Statues in Mawanella and a report filed in that connection by DIG Palitha Siriwardena who had functioned as the DIG of the Kegalla Division last year, on the maintenance of a terrorist camp at Wanathawilluwa by Islamic terrorists and the carrying out of the bombings on 21 April.

The Archbishop of Colombo had urged the Commission to conduct a probe where all citizens in the country could place their trust and confidence in them to get to the root cause of the Easter Sunday carnage and to carry out their duties sans any kind of political affiliations whatsoever.

 Pahan Wijesekera and Udayanthi Munasingha 08:09 AM Oct 15 2019  0