The Catholic Church is to hold a peaceful protest tomorrow (12) against what they claimed to be the Police's failure to apprehend the real culprits behind the incident of a hand grenade being found at the All Saints' Church in Colombo 8 in 2022.
Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (10), the National Director of Communications of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka, Jude Chrishantha Fernando said that despite two years having passed since the incident, the Police has failed to apprehend the real culprits and uncover the truth behind the incident. He also said that they suspect that the incident could be a result of a plan set by some security agency to disrupt a protest that was to be held in January 2022, seeking justice for the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019. "When this incident took place, the Police arrested a worker of the Church and two other persons for nothing, and detained them for more than one month. They (Police) were going to check the closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of only a few hours and it was Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith who instructed the Church's priest to check the CCTV footage of the entire day. The video footage showed a person entering the Church on the particular day. The Police stated that they had arrested that person, but, we have heard nothing about this incident since then. This is why we suspect that this was done by some security agency at that time."
Speaking further, Fernando said that the Catholic Church has organised a special service at the All Saints Church, which will be followed by a peaceful protest in front of the Church tomorrow (12). He also said that Cardinal Ranjith would attend the protest.
A hand grenade was found on the premises of the All Saints’ Church on Ananda Rajakaruna Mawatha opposite the Welikada Prison in Borella at around 4.40 p.m. on 11 January 2022. The hand grenade was discovered following a tip-off received by the Police and it was later defused by the Police Special Task Force. Several suspects including a retired medical officer were arrested by the Police over the incident, but the origin of the incident was not revealed.