The Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) on National Security does not intend to summon before it the former President and incumbent Opposition Parliamentarian Maithripala Sirisena over the latter's recent statement regarding the terror attacks on Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019.

Sirisena, who was the President and the Defence Minister at the time of the incident, recently claimed that he knew the 'real masterminds' of the terror attacks.

The Daily Morning queried the said SOC's Chairperson, Government MP, Rear Admiral (retired), Dr. Sarath Weerasekara as to whether they, at any point, would summon Sirisena over the controversial statement, to which he said that they do not intend to do so. "He (Sirisena) was already summoned by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), and he recorded a statement. The relevant investigations have already commenced. We therefore do not intend to summon him."

Following his (Sirisena) controversial statement, the Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles had instructed the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon to launch an immediate investigation into the matter. The IGP had then directed the CID to look into the matter. After Sirisena recorded a statement with the CID, the latter had made the relevant submissions to the Maligakanda Magistrate's Court, and the related Court proceedings are currently underway.

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches and three luxury hotels in 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 attacks, including about 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 were injured. Sirisena, who was the President, the Defence Minister, and the Law and Order Minister as of April 2019, was on a foreign tour at the time of the bombings.