Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, August 20 (Daily Mirror) – Former President Maithripala Sirisena today claimed that the mastermind behind the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings is well known to intelligence services, the military, and governments, but remains beyond Sri Lanka’s reach.

Speaking at an event at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Sirisena said that despite ongoing efforts to identify those responsible, the truth cannot be revealed to the public. Everyone knows who the mastermind is. People in every government, the military, and intelligence agencies know where the mastermind is. But we cannot fight him,” he said.

The former President further alleged that serious crimes had been deliberately orchestrated to tarnish his image, destroy his government, and weaken his party.

Turning to geopolitics, Sirisena warned that the recently signed Indo-Lanka defence agreements could lead to major issues in the future, similar to the Indo-Lanka Accord of the 1980s. He also highlighted that provincial councils have remained inactive for more than a decade, wasting millions of rupees annually.

On global affairs, Sirisena said world peace and sustainable development are at risk due to the war mindset” of certain world leaders. Citing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an example, he accused powerful nations of fuelling conflicts instead of addressing global poverty.