{"id":155928,"date":"2026-04-27T16:29:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=155928"},"modified":"2026-04-27T16:29:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:29:31","slug":"those-who-governed-headed-security-during-easter-attacks-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/04\/27\/those-who-governed-headed-security-during-easter-attacks-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"THOSE WHO GOVERNED & HEADED SECURITY DURING EASTER ATTACKS 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shenali Waduge<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

THOSE WHO GOVERNED & HEADED SECURITY DURING EASTER ATTACKS 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7     President (Minister of Defence) \u2013 MAITHRIPALA SIRISENA-2015-2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Prime Minister \u2013 RANIL WICKREMASINGHE -2015-2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Defense Secretary \u2013 HEMASIRI FERNANDO -Jan 2018-May 2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police Leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      IGP – Pujith Jayasundara – 2016 \u2013 October 2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intelligence Services<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Chief of National Intelligence (CNI) \u2013 Sisra Mendis – <\/strong>2015-2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Head of State Intelligence Service (SIS) \u2013 Nilantha Jayawardena <\/strong>Mar 2015 \u2013 Dec 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criminal Investigation Department<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Senior DIG CID \u2013 Ravi Seneviratne – <\/strong>2015 \u2013 July 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Director CID \u2013 Shani Abeysekera –<\/strong>2015 SSP \/ 2017 \u2013 Director CID to July 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TID (Terrorism Investigation Division) leadership \/ reporting to IGP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Director TID – DIG Nalaka de Silva – Feb 2015 \u2013 Oct 2018 (interdicted)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       SSP W S E Jayasundera Dec 2018 to Apr 2019 (4 months)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       After May 2019 TID placed under CID SDIG Ravi Seneviratne (he headed CID & TID)<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commander of the Army <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Lt. Gen. Chrishantha de Silva \u2013 2015 \u2013 2017 (Jan)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake – 2017-2019 (Aug) \u2013 During Easter attacks<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commander of the Navy <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Admiral Jayantha Perera \u2013 Jul 2014 to Jul 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne – July 2015 \u2013 August 2017<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Admiral Travis Sinniah – August 2017 \u2013 October 2017<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Admiral Sirimevan Ranasinghe – October 2017 \u2013 December 2018<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Admiral Piyal De Silva – January 2019 \u2013 July 2020 (during <\/strong>Easter attacks<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne – July 2020 \u2013 December 2022<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commander of the Air Force  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Air Chief Marshal Kolitha Gunathilake \u2013 Feb 2014-Jun 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Air Chief Marshal Gagan Bulathsinghala<\/strong> <\/strong>\u2013 Jun 2015 \u2013 Sept 2016<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathy \u2013 Sept 2016 \u2013 May 2019 (during Easter attacks)<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Air Chief Marshal Sumangala Dias \u2013 May 2019 \u2013 Nov 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Air Chief Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana \u2013 Nov 2020 \u2013 Jun 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attorney General<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Jayantha Jayasuriya \u2013 Jan 2016 to 29 April 2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7       Dappula de Livera \u2013 29 April 2019 to May 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THEY KNEW<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2015 \u2013 Decision to monitor ISIS network<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016 \u2013 Wijayadasa Rajapakse on 32 Sri Lankans joining ISIS Syria<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2017 \u2013 SIS flags radicalizing trends to Def Sec \/ surveillance authorized<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2017 \u2013 July Arrest warrant for Zaharan Batticoloa magistrate\/Jun 2017 TID opens file<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018 \u2013 Sri Lankan with AlQaeda links arrested in Turkey\/Pakistan warning\/Mawanella<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018 \u2013 2 July TID B report \/ Colombo Magistrate issues Open Warrant on Zaharan.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018 \u2013 7 Jul \u2013 TID sends Zaharan file to AGs dept \u2013 no action taken<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018 \u2013 9 July onwards CID takes over Zaharan case<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2019 \u2013 Jan Wanathawilluwa camp \/ weapons<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2019 \u2013 April 2 onwards Indian intel briefs giving targets, names of attackers<\/strong><\/strong> \u0db6\u0dbd\u0dba\u0dda \u0dc3\u0dd2\u0da7\u0dd2 \u0d86\u0dbb\u0d9a\u0dca\u0dc2\u0d9a \u0db4\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0db0\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dca \u0db8\u0dd9\u0dad\u0dbb\u0db8\u0dca \u0dc3\u0dc4\u0dbb\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dca \u0d9c\u0dd0\u0db1 \u0daf\u0dd0\u0db1 \u0dc3\u0dd2\u0da7\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dad\u0dca \/ \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dd9\u0dc3\u0dca \u0d85\u0db1\u0dad\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dd4 \u0d87\u0d9c\u0dc0\u0dd3\u0db8\u0dca \u0dad\u0dd2\u0db6\u0dd2\u0dba \u0daf\u0dd3\u0dad\u0dca\u0db8\u0dd4\u0d9a\u0dd4\u0dad\u0dca \u0db1\u0ddc\u0d9a\u0dbb\u0dda \u0d87\u0dba\u0dd2 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shenali Waduge THOSE WHO GOVERNED & HEADED SECURITY DURING EASTER ATTACKS 2019 \u00b7     President (Minister of Defence) \u2013 MAITHRIPALA SIRISENA-2015-2019 \u00b7      Prime Minister \u2013 RANIL WICKREMASINGHE -2015-2019 \u00b7      Defense Secretary \u2013 HEMASIRI FERNANDO -Jan 2018-May 2019 Police Leadership \u00b7      IGP – Pujith Jayasundara – 2016 \u2013 October 2019 Intelligence Services \u00b7       Chief of National Intelligence (CNI) \u2013 Sisra Mendis – 2015-2019 \u00b7       Head of State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155929,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155928\/revisions\/155929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}