Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando today lamented that his actions to expose lapses that led to the Easter Sunday carnage had led him to being vilified in a case of “shoot the messenger.”

Participating in the debate on the state of emergency, Mr Fernando insisted that social media and certain mainstream media had misinterpreted his comments about his father’s warning prior to Easter Sunday attacks.

“What I was saying was that my father, who is very ill and being treated at the Intensive Care Unit of the Colombo National Hospital, had been warned by one of his friends in the intelligence community of an impending attack. My question was that someone like my father knew of a planned attack, how could those in the police and intelligence agencies not know that? What we saw thereafter was that social media and some mainstream media deliberately misinterpreted my words. I am telling them not to shoot the messenger,” he stressed.

Mr Fernando added that reports claiming that he had simply ensured his own security were false and thanked the divine powers for saving his life. “On Easter Sunday, I was at mass at St. Anthony’s Church in Badulla while my children were at Bambalapitiya Church. They were due to go for lunch at the Cinnamon Grand afterwards. Even former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa was at mass that morning.”

The Minister said the misleading reports had even reached Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith.

“There had been 13 intelligence reports by the State Intelligence Service and only the last two reports are now in circulation in the media. I did not hide nor did I hide any information. My question was why there had been no proper action. It is wrong to shoot the messenger,” the Minister said.