Resigned to "protect" political bosses, says ex-Lankan Defence Secretary

Sri Lanka's ousted defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando Friday claimed that he had to quit to "protect" his political bosses while asserting that he followed the standard procedures while dealing with advance intelligence inputs on the deadly Easter Sunday terror attacks.

Amidst public outcry over the massive intelligence failure to avert the suicide attacks, President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday sought the resignation of Fernando as well as the Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara.

While Fernando quit on Thursday, Jayasundara tendered his resignation on Friday.

Sirisena said the intelligence supplied by a friendly nation was not shared with him by senior officials. "All they have done was to exchange letters among themselves," he said.

 

"I asked both police chief and defence secretary why the information was not shared with me, they remained silent," he said.

But in a statement prior to tendering his resignation, Fernando said he had forwarded all intelligence information regarding the Easter Sunday attacks to the relevant institutions for action following the standard procedures.

He claimed that all advice and orders had also been given and at a time when there was no Emergency or any other special situation enforced in the country, the entire responsibility was with the police, which had conducted arrests and search operations.

While Fernando came under fire over the Easter Sunday attacks, he had confided in several media heads that he had in fact immediately notified the relevant political authorities regarding the intelligence warning, the Sri Lanka Mirror reported.

However he said that in order to "protect these political authorities he would have to resign from his post", the report said.

Nine suicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three churches and three luxury hotels on the Easter Sunday.

The Islamic State group has claimed the attacks, but the Sri Lankan government has blamed local Islamist extremist group National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ) for the bombings that killed 253 people, including 11 Indians.

In his statement, Fernando noted that President Sirisena has appointed a special committee to inquire if the security establishments had flouted their responsibility while the Defence Ministry is also conducting an independent inquiry into the matter.

After Fernando handing in his resignation to the Presidential Secretariat, senior administrative officer Thusitha Wanigasinghe was appointed as the Acting Defence Secretary on Friday.