Criminal investigators in Sri Lanka on Wednesday arrested the country’s former intelligence chief in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people and injured more than 500, police said.
Retired Major-General Suresh Sallay was taken into custody at dawn in a suburb of the capital, Colombo. An investigating officer said authorities arrested him on charges of conspiracy and aiding and abetting the coordinated suicide attacks.
Sallay, who became head of the State Intelligence Service in 2019 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa assumed the presidency, has denied any involvement.
Allegations link attack to political developments
In 2023, Channel 4 reported that Sallay had links to the Islamist bombers and met them before the attacks. A whistleblower alleged that he allowed the plot to proceed to influence the 2019 presidential election in Rajapaksa’s favor. Two days after the bombings, Rajapaksa declared his candidacy and later secured a landslide victory, pledging to eliminate Islamist extremism.
However, Sallay lost his position after Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the 2024 presidential election and promised accountability for those responsible.
Investigations expose security failures
Following the attacks on three churches and three hotels, authorities blamed a local jihadist group. Nevertheless, multiple probes criticized officials for failing to act on warnings from Indian intelligence about imminent threats.
In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka fined former president Maithripala Sirisena and four senior officials over $1.03 million for negligence in preventing the tragedy. Meanwhile, the United Nations has urged authorities to release previously withheld inquiry findings.
