Former IGP Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando who failed to take preventive action against the Easter Sunday carnage should be held fully responsible for the bombings, former President Maithripala Sirisena said testifying before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into the Easter Sunday attacks yesterday. He said he had not been informed about a possible attack by the then IGP, Defence Secretary or the State Intelligence Service headed by the SDIG Nilantha Jayawardhane even by April 20.

According to him, none of the states in the world had pointed a finger at their Heads for such terrorist activities. “Officials who did not follow my instructions with regard to religious extremism should be held responsible for the bombings,” he stressed.

The former President also said that the Ministry of Law and Order under which the Police Department comes was taken over by him only in January 2019.

‘As the President he was informed that the mastermind of the attacks Zahran Hashim was engaged in spreading the ISIS ideologies in the Eastern Province and through social media only in January 2019,” he added. The former President will further be testifying before the Commission on Next Monday (12).