Former President Maithripala Sirisena says he is not responsible for the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks.

He mentioned this during an interview with BBC Sinhala today (17).

Speaking on prior warning on the Easter attacks, Sirisena stated that he would have prevented the attacks from happening if he had known beforehand.

He was then inquired why there was a gap between him and the intelligence reports on a possible attack when he was the President and the Commander in Chief, to which he responded saying that reason for gap has been made obvious through the investigations carried out on the incident.

Those who are responsible for this have been suspended from service and are being prosecuted, the former President added.

When inquired whether he, as the [then] President, or then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should be held responsible for the attacks, Sirisena asked why he should take on the responsibility of the attacks.

He further went on to say that ‘a President does not get involved in arrests of illicit liquor, rapists, drug offenders, or terrorists’. He says that a President’s work involves policies, strategies, orders, and directives.
 
“He, the President, had worked on all those aspects. The people below him are the ones who hadn’t followed them. All investigations have made this clear”, he added.

Maithripala Sirisena further said he should have known of the attack beforehand for him to express regret on the incident.

“If the security officials attached to the President or the Prime Minister were not aware of this [a possible attack], how would the President or the Prime Minister know about this?”, he added.