Tuesday night (Sept. 05), the British news organisation “Channel 4” aired a contentious documentary containing shocking allegations regarding the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka that targeted several Catholic churches and upscale hotels, killing more than 260 people and injuring hundreds more.
The approximately 50-minute-long “Dispatches” investigation, “Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings,” is based on testimony from high-ranking whistleblowers who claimed that government officials were complicit.
The primary informant, Hanzeer Azad Maulana, served as a spokesperson for the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), a faction of the LTTE that is currently led by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, state minister for rural road development.
The video claims that Maulana, who was charged with fraud in this country and sought asylum in Switzerland, testified before the UN Human Rights Council and was also questioned by European security services.
Prior to the Easter Sunday assaults, the suicide bombers met with a senior Sri Lankan intelligence officer, according to Maulana’s account to Channel 4.
According to Maulana, the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) meeting between then-army intelligence chief Major General Suresh Sallay and NTJ members, including its leader Zahran Hashim, was set up on Pillayan’s orders. Maulana also claimed that the plot to sow unrest in the nation so that former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa would win the presidential election later in 2019 was developed over a period of two to three years.
