There was a lapse in conveying the intelligence information received on the suicide bomb attacks, says Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

He stated this speaking at an exclusive interview with NDTV yesterday (23).

PM Wickremesinghe stated that the authorities are currently looking into these lapses, however, the priority is given to apprehending the terrorists.

“So far it has been a group confined to Sri Lankan citizens but with foreign connections. This is why we have asked the assistance of some of the foreign agencies to trace the overseas links,” he said.

“We have a good intelligence sharing system with India. It has been giving us the help we need. We also have got help from the USA and UK,” The Prime Minister said.

The Sri Lankan government’s understanding on these coordinated terrorist attacks is that it was retaliation to the massacre at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, however, the Prime Minister stated the attacks in Sri Lanka were planned before the Christchurch incident. There is a question of when and how the series of suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka was planned, he added.

Stating that the war carried out by the LTTE, of which “This is not that type of war anymore […] this is different from LTTE,” the Prime Minister said. “This is a group which hasn’t got the support of the vast majority of Muslims.”

Speaking on the effect these attacks has on the communal harmony in Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister stated, “It is individuals who work on these and it is not organized movement backed by Muslims. There is a certain amount of tension but that is natural in a situation like this. We have to tackle it.”