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Father Cyril Gamini Fernando who is the editor of the Catholic weekly Gnanartha Pradeepaya and also the spokesperson of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith on matters relating to the Easter Sunday attacks, once again visited the CID last week on being summoned to give a statement.

After completing his visit to the CID he told the media that he had provided a great deal of information to the CID.

Father Cyril Gamini Fernando said, “The CID already posseses much information on the Easter Sunday mayhem. However, no proper investigation has been conducted to date. Therefore, we have to wait and see whether my information will make any difference,” he said.

Despite five years having passed since the attack the country as well as the direct victims are no closer to knowing who masterminded the attack and why it was carried out. It is to the credit of the Catholic Church that it has been relentlessly pursuing the matter and seeking justice for those who were the victims of the attack.  

Otherwise it is very likely that it would have been swept under the carpet and added to the long list of unsolved murders in the country. A society brutalised by a debilitating 30-year-old civil war followed by an economic crash could easily have slipped into complacency and allowed the investigations to be forgotten.

It is not that Sri Lankan investigators are not capable of getting to the bottom of what former Attorney General Dappula de Livera described as a ‘grand conspiracy”. There are many skilled investigators in the CID who can uncover the truth. In fact officers like Shani Abeysekera and Ravi Seneviratne had covered much ground in the investigations before they were sidelined.

Many of those who are in custody or are being tried in courts are those who were arrested in the first two weeks after the attack. Despite the Law enforcement agencies having faltered and not taken any preventive action even though they were in possession of intelligence regarding the impending attacks, they did act fast thereafter and succeeded in making several arrests and dismantling Zahran’s network within days.

However, there is a glimmer of hope for the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks with two of the main contenders at the Presidential Elections the Samagi Jana Balavegaya and the National People’s Front (NPP) announcing their plans for investigating the Easter Sunday attacks in the event of their taking office.

Although Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna based their campaign at the 2019 Presidential Elections on a National Security platform and promised to bring to book the masterminds behind the Easter Sunday attacks they failed to do so.

In the meantime following the NPP meeting with Cardinal Malcolm Ranjit where they outlined their plans to investigate the Easter Sunday attacks, the General Secretary of the United National Party (UNP) issued an unusual statement criticising the Cardinal and the NPP. When one would have expected him to also make a pledge to bring the Easter Sunday attackers to book, he instead went on a rampage criticising Cardinal Malcolm Ranjit and the NPP.

In a statement published in the Daily Mirror yesterday the UNP General Secretary called upon the people not to get deceived by National Peoples Power (NPP) and Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.

Palitha Range Bandara had made these remarks in reference to the meeting which a group of NPP members had with Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith on Thursday. Range Bandara questioned as to whether the Cardinal was supporting the NPP the same way he did the former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019.

The UNP General Secretary alleged that the Cardinal had said a few days ago that he was deceived by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa into supporting him at the Presidential Elections of 2019.

According to Range Bandara by supporting the former President the Cardinal put the country into jeopardy and the people into untold suffering as a result of the economy crashing.

He accused Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of betraying the country once by supporting Gotabaya Rajapaksa and questioned whether he was getting ready to do it again by supporting the NPP.

Whatever battles politicians wage against each other it should not detract from the larger cause of justice for the victims of the horrific attacks of April 2019. It is hoped that the investigations will even at this stage be expedited without having to wait the outcome of the Presidential Elections of 2024. (javidyusuf@gmail)