Gotabaya Rajapaksa rejects British documentary that stated the Easter Sunday assaults have been carried out to affect presidential election.
Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has denied allegations in a British tv programme that ISIL (ISIS)-inspired fighters have been used to hold out suicide bombings in 2019 to create insecurity within the nation and assist him win an election later that yr.
“To assert {that a} group of Islamic extremists launched suicide assaults with a view to make me president is absurd,” Rajapaksa stated in a public assertion on Thursday, his first since being faraway from energy in July final yr.
He stated the documentary on Britain’s Channel 4 tv was “largely an anti-Rajapaksa tirade”.
Within the programme broadcast on Tuesday, Channel 4 interviewed a person who stated he organized a gathering between an area ISIL-inspired group, Nationwide Thowheed Jamath, and a high state intelligence official loyal to Rajapaksa to formulate a plot to create instability and allow Rajapaksa to win the presidential election.
Rajapaksa, a former high defence official, was seen as a robust law-and-order candidate. His older brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, was defeated within the 2015 elections after 10 years as president.
Nationwide Thowheed Jamath is accused of finishing up six suicide bomb assaults on Easter Sunday in 2019 which focused church buildings and vacationer accommodations and killed 269 individuals.
The assaults revived reminiscences of frequent suicide bombings throughout the nation’s quarter-century-long civil battle with Tamil Tiger rebels which ended 10 years earlier in 2009.
Fears over nationwide safety enabled Rajapaksa to brush to energy. He was compelled to resign in July 2022 throughout mass protests over an financial disaster.
Azad Maulana, the person interviewed by Channel 4, was a spokesman for a Tamil Tiger breakaway armed group that later backed the state and helped the Sinhalese-dominated authorities defeat the Tamil rebels and win the civil battle.
Maulana stated he organized a gathering in 2018 between ISIL-inspired fighters and a high intelligence officer on the behest of his boss on the time, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, the chief of the insurgent breakaway group who later grew to become a politician.
Maulana stated Chandrakanthan met Zainee Hashim, brother of the chief of Nationwide Thowheed Jamath, in jail whereas Chandrakanthan was jailed on homicide allegations and decided that the group may very well be helpful in creating instability.
He stated Chandrakanthan organized for Maulana to assist acquire Hashim’s launch by offering him with authorized and monetary help.
As soon as launched, Hashim organized a gathering between Nationwide Thowheed Jamath and a high intelligence official near Rajapaksa, Maulana stated.
Maulana advised Channel 4 that he didn’t take part within the assembly, however the intelligence officer advised him later that creating insecurity was the one approach to return the Rajapaksa household to energy.
After safety digital camera movies of the bombings have been launched, Maulana stated he noticed that the attackers carrying bomb-laden backpacks have been individuals he had organized to fulfill with the intelligence officer.
The Related Press information company stated Chandrakanthan didn’t reply to cellphone calls looking for remark.
In a speech on Wednesday, he accused Maulana of constructing claims to get his asylum utility permitted within the nation the place he’s at present dwelling. He stated he was in jail throughout that interval and questioned how he might have coordinated a terror assault whereas in detention.
Channel 4 reported that Maulana has been interviewed by United Nations investigators and European intelligence companies about his claims.
Rajapaksa stated in his assertion that he didn’t have any contact with the intelligence officer named within the documentary from the time he resigned as defence ministry secretary in 2015 till he grew to become president in 2019.
He stated the official was not a part of any intelligence company throughout that interval and allegations that he met the suicide bombers have been a fabrication.
“This newest movie by Chanel 4 is usually an anti-Rajapaksa tirade geared toward blackening the Rajapaksa legacy from 2005 onwards and is a tissue of lies similar to the earlier movies broadcast by the identical channel,” Rajapaksa stated, referring to a earlier Channel 4 documentary that alleged grave human rights violations by Sri Lankan troopers within the ultimate section of the civil battle.