Courtesy Adaderana

The hearing of evidence by the Presidential Commission probing the Eater attacks continued today (11) with the recording of statements from the Senior DIG in charge of the Western Province who stated that he was skeptical rather of the possibility of an attack since no prior information had been circulated of the existence of such a group before.

The DIG responsible for the Western Province at the time of Easter attacks Nandana Munasinghe giving evidence before the Presidential Commission revealed that he had received a confidential document from the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), warning of an imminent attack by the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) organization.

The witness stated that the letter, marked ‘Top Secret’ and ‘Top Priority’ was based on information provided by State Intelligence Services (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena which has been forwarded to the IGP by National Intelligence Chief Sisira Mendis.

He added that the letter had been marked ‘For Necessary Action’ by the IGP and was shared with STF Commandant DIG M. R. Lathif, DIG in charge of the Special Security District DIG Priyalal Dissayanake and the Director of Terrorism Investigation Division (TID).

The Commission then asked the witness whether there had been any attempts made to contact the IGP for further instructions. To which he responded that as the LTTE had taken 10 years to develop the use of suicide vests he remained skeptical about the veracity of the information as no prior intelligence had been received regarding the emergence of such organization. 

To this he added that he did not seek any such instructions and neither did the IGP contact him to confirm the receipt of the letter.

The Commission then asked the witness whether he had attempted to contact the National Intelligence Chief due to the letter being an intelligence document, to which he replied, that 2 days after receiving the letter he had contacted SIS Director Nilanthe Jayawardena.

The Senior State Counsel then asked the witness if any reports on Muslim extremism were received before the warning letter to which he responded in the negative.

The witness was then asked whether he was aware of the discovery of explosives in Wanathawilluwa and the arrest of 04 Muslim suspects on January 16, 2019. He responded although he was aware of the incident, as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had not informed him of the details of the probe, or the fact that the group was an organized terror outfit, was not convinced that an attack could take place.

The Commission then questioned the witness whether the original confidential letter from the IGP containing the warning of the attack was submitted as evidence, to which he stated that letter in question had been handed over to the CID on June 10, 2019.

In response being questioned as to why he had kept such letter in his possession for a period of two months before handing it over for evidence, the witness told the Commission that the decision to keep the letter or even destroy it remained solely at his discretion.

The witness’ statement was chided by the Commission who reminded him that it was a legal requirement to keep to keep a record of every document for a period of five years.

The witness was then questioned by the Senior State Counsel if any discussion were held on the content of the letter between the IGP and other senior police officials, to which he replied in the negative.

The witness accepted that if going by media reports where it had been made clear that the IGP had been informed of a threat on numerous occasions by the National Intelligence Chief, any discussion on the subject could have prevented the incident.