International
Sri Lanka PM says he is unaware of intelligence warning on attacks
Sri Lanka Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has absolved himself of a statement by the minister of public enterprise that senior officials deliberately withheld intelligence about possible attacks on the country,
Wickremesinghe, told the BBC he was “out of the loop” when it came to intelligence warnings on the deadly Easter Sunday bombings.
The Sri Lankan minister, Lakshman Kiriella, speaking Wednesday on the series of suicide bombings which killed at least 359 people said: “Some top intelligence officials hid the intelligence information purposefully. Information was there, but the top brass security officials did not take appropriate actions.”
READ ALSO: SRI LANKA: Minister reveals officials held back intelligence on attacks over suicide bombings
He also revealed that details on probable suicide attacks on churches, hotels and politicians were received from Indian intelligence on April 4 and a Security Council meeting was led by President Maithripala Sirisena on April 7, but the information was not shared on a larger scale.
“Somebody is controlling these top intelligence officials,” the minister said. “The Security Council is doing politics. We need to investigate into this.”
However, Wickremesinghe said that crucial information about any potential danger in the country was not passed to him.
The country’s police chief and top defence ministry official have both resigned over the bombings, however Wickremesinghe argued the fact that he was unaware of the warnings meant he did not need to step down from his position.
“If we had any inkling, and we had not taken action, I would have handed in my resignation immediately,” he said, adding: “But what do you do when you are out of the loop?”
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