Claiming that the appointment of a second Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to look into the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 21 April 2019 – which was previously looked into by another PSC – will bring disrespect to the first PSC and the Parliament, Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana said that the proposed appointment of a PSC anew should be studied further.
A PSC is expected to be appointed to look into the Easter Sunday terror attacks, including the recent allegations levelled by Britain's Channel 4, which claimed that the terror attacks that claimed 269 lives and injured hundreds of others, had been carried out with the alleged participation of government officials to pave the way for the Rajapaksas (the families of Government Parliamentarian and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa), particularly Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to come to power.
Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (1), Abeywardana said that there is a problematic situation with regard to the proposed appointment of a PSC. “A PSC was previously appointed to look into this matter, and this request is to appoint another PSC. There is an issue concerning it. The appointment of a second PSC to look into something that was looked into by a first PSC is disrespectful to the first PSC and the Parliament. That is because the appointment of a second PSC means that the first PSC didn’t do its job properly. Therefore, this matter should be studied further.”
On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches (the St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, the St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, and the Zion Church in Batticaloa) and three luxury hotels in Colombo (the Cinnamon Grand, The Kingsbury, and the Shangri-La Colombo) were targeted in a series of coordinated suicide bombings. Later that day, another two bomb explosions took place at a house in Dematagoda and the Tropical Inn Lodge in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people excluding the bombers were killed in the bombings, including about 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 were injured.
Several parties including the Catholic Church that represents the victims of the terror attacks and their families, and Opposition MPs had disapproved of the appointment of a PSC to look into the matter. Pointing out that a PSC had already looked into the matter, they said that what needed to be done was to implement the recommendations made by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that investigated the terror attacks, suspend the public officials who had been accused of not having prevented the terror attacks, and facilitate a comprehensive and impartial inquiry into the matter with international support.