Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Amending the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was better than bringing in a new Counter-Terrorism Act (CTA), Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said today.

The Cardinal said this in response to a statement made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday that the Easter Sunday bombings could have been averted had the Counter-Terrorism Act was in force.

It is easier to amend the remaining legislation rather than bringing a new one,” he said.  

Both the Cardinal and Venerable Ittapana Dhammalankara Maha Nayaka Thera expressed their dissatisfaction on the investigations carried out by the government on Easter Sunday bomb attacks and the Presidential Commission appointed to look into the security lapses.

However, they said that they would welcome if a committee headed by Buddhist clergy was appointed to look into the matter as they neither belong to Catholic nor Islamic communities.

Venerable Dhammalankara Thera said the steps taken by the government to investigate and apprehend those behind the bombings were far from satisfactory.

We don’t see that the government had given its utmost attention to pull out the country from the crisis that is prevailing in the country,” the Thera said while highlighting that the government should speak in one voice at this moment. (