The Easter Sunday carnage which had led to the deaths of more
than three hundred people in Colombo, Negombo and in the
Batticaloa districts has completed six years this year.
From the time the Easter Sunday attacks occurred in 2019 April
the churches throughout the Island put under security blankets
annually for the Christian devotees to take part in Easter
Sunday religious ceremonies.
As usual even this year the churches were guarded by Police
and armed forces to pave way for the Christian devotees to
attend the churches.
However despite the extensive investigations made into the
Easter Sunday attacks and even the report submitted by a
special Presidential Commission which was appointed to look
into the legal matters pertaining to the Easter Sunday attacks,
the culprits behind planning and carried out their intentions still
remain hiding at large.

It is in this backdrop, President Anurakumara Dissanayake has
pointed at a public meeting held in the Polunnaruwa district on
Sunday (20) that the Easter Sunday attacks were carried out by
those who were in hunger to come to power.
It is for the first time since the Easter Sunday attacks took place
six years ago, the Head of State of Sri Lanka has admitted that
the Easter Sunday attacks were focused on grabbing the power
in the country.
A free and fair investigation and the call for justice have been
kept on emphasized not only by the hierarchy of the Catholic
Church in Sri Lanka, but even by Vatican.
However in the backdrop of investigations carried out so far
and the special Presidential Commission reports on the Easter
Sunday carnage have been shelved and President Anurakumara
Dissanayake has pointed out that the Easter Sunday attacks
were carried out by those who wanted to grab the power of the
country.
So it is clear President Anurakumara Dissanayake is well aware
of the culprits behind the heinous Easter Sunday attacks in
three districts in the country six years ago but whereas he is not
coming out openly on taking the culprits to the task.
It was President Maithripala Sirisena was in power when the
Easter Sunday bombings took place. Thereafter President

Gotabaya Rajapakse came into power and the Presidential
report on the Easter Sunday calamity was handed over to him.
Therefore from President Anurakumara Dissanayake’s public
rally speech in Polunnaruwa it is clear to a greater extent who
had orchestrated the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 April.
Since now the ball is on President Anurakumara Dissanayake’s
court, he has to play an important role in granting justice with
regard to the Easter Sunday carnage.
A few weeks ago former Chief Minister of Eastern Province
Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan was arrested by
the Criminal Investigation Department official (CID) following
the arrest Pillaiyan is currently being grilled by the CID in
Colombo.
According to sources, Pillaiyan and Azard Moulana who was a
political ally of Pillaiyan and former military intelligence higher
official retired Maj .Gen Suresh Sallay were also suspected as
the men behind the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka in April
2019.
In the meantime former Army Chief Field Marshal Sarath
Fonseka in an interview to a local media in Colombo had
lambasted LTTE’s former prominent members Pillaiyan and
Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna amman for going
around telling that they helped the Army to defeat the LTTE.

According to Sarath Fonseka who has been referring to the now
defunct LTTE outfit’s leader V.Prabhakaran as a mad fellow
pointed out that Pillaiyan and Karuna were wanted in
connection with fraudulent activities in the LTTE and to escape
from the charges against them only they came out and
surrendered to the Armed forces and not to support in making
peace in the country.
Therefore as the investigation being carried out on Pillaiyan on
several charges against him including his alleged involvement in
the Easter Sunday carnage in 2019, more arrests of former
bigwigs in the previous regimes are likely to occur and grilled by
the CID officials in the near future.

By Ananth Palakidnar – 21. 4.2025