Former SLPP MP Nimal Lanza yesterday (17) asked the NPP government to release two Easter Sunday reports without further delay.
Addressing the media at Wellavidiya, Negombo, Lanza emphasised that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government shouldn’t ask Pivithuru Hela Urumnaya (PHU) leader Udaya Gammanpila for the reports.
Why should the government do so when both reports could be obtained from the Presidential Secretariat and the Attorney General’s Department, the former Gampaha District lawmaker asked?
Lanza was speaking on behalf of the New Democratic Front (NDF) contesting the forthcoming parliamentary election under the ‘gas cylinder’ symbol.
UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe leads the NDF though he is not in the fray.
Declaring that the vast majority of Catholics exercised their franchise in support of Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the presidential election, Lanza called for the JJB leader’s immediate intervention.
April 21, 2019 Easter Sunday attacks that had been blamed on the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) claimed the lives of about 270 people and caused injuries to approximately 500.
Lanza said that having taken advantage of the failure on the part of the previous governments, President Dissanayake should play politics with the Catholic Church and the community.
Former minister Gammapila has pointed out that Ranil Wickremesinghe called for the reports that dealt with the intelligence services and specific allegations directed at Maj. General Suresh Salley regarding his involvement with the NTJ refrained from releasing them before the presidential election.
Having demanded justice for Easter victims over past several years, the JJB shouldn’t under any circumstances try to cause further turmoil by suppressing two vital reports that shed light on the heinous crime.
