{"id":218376,"date":"2021-04-21T09:49:26","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T04:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=218376"},"modified":"2021-04-22T13:24:26","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T07:54:26","slug":"harin-manusha-rock-parliament-with-exposes-who-did-easter-sunday-bombers-call-sonic-sonic-and-the-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/harin-manusha-rock-parliament-with-exposes-who-did-easter-sunday-bombers-call-sonic-sonic-and-the-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Harin, Manusha Rock Parliament With Exposes: Who Did Easter Sunday Bombers Call \u2018Sonic-Sonic\u2019 And \u2018The Boss\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opposition Lawmaker Harin Fernando<\/a><\/span> and his party colleagues created a stir in Parliament on Tuesday (20) when they revealed that \u201cSonic-Sonic\u201d was a code name used in communications between the Easter Sunday bombers on the messaging app Threema.<\/p>\n

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) managed to intercept communications between the attackers on the obscure messaging app when they assisted with the initial probe into the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019, opposition lawmakers said.<\/p>\n

For months, opposition MPs have been hinting about the involvement of Sri Lankan high level intelligence operatives in the April 2019 bombings that killed 269 people.<\/p>\n

More recently, opposition MPs including Manusha Nanayakkara<\/a><\/span> and Anura Kumara Dissanayake have referenced a connection between the Easter Sunday conspirators and Lankan intelligence personnel in Malaysia. During his speech several weeks ago, Dissanayake also referred to the same second Zahran from Matale, in the context of his links to the security apparatus of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

But Tuesday\u2019s explosive statement marks the very first time the Opposition has directly alluded to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s State Intelligence Services Chief, Major General Suresh Sallay.<\/p>\n

Fernando talked about the arrest of \u201cMatale Zahran\u201d, the second Zahran who has been the subject of discussion in recent weeks, as suspicions have grown about links between the security establishment and the bombers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was referred to as \u201cLittle Zahran\u201d, Fernando explained about Zahran II. It was in Little Zahran\u2019s intercepted communications that the Code Name \u201cSonic-Sonic\u201d had repeatedly appeared. Yet Matale Zahran had never been summoned to testify before the Easter Sunday Commission, the Opposition Lawmaker noted.<\/p>\n

Fernando alleged that one individual who represents President Gotabaya Rajapaksa controls the country\u2019s entire intelligence apparatus. This individual, Harin Fernando said, had recently taken over the job of the CID, briefing the Attorney General on the Easter Sunday attackers.<\/p>\n

Maj. Gen. Sallay recently met with AG Dappula De Livera, to convince him that the persons arrested in connection with the bombings that the government had \u201cdecided\u201d were masterminds and the real perpetrators. It is unprecedented for an SIS Chief to directly involve himself in a criminal investigation. But President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa already broke with precedent when he appointed a major general from the army to head the SIS which is an arm of the Police Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to find out who the mastermind of the Easter bombings is, remember that it is this person,\u201d Fernando said, careful not to mention the SIS Chief by name.<\/p>\n

From 2017-2019, Sallay functioned as Defence Attache at the Sri Lankan High Commission in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. During the same period, former Colombo Mayor turned die-hard Gotabaya loyalist A.J.M Muzammil was appointed as High Commissioner to Malaysia by President Maithripala Sirisena.<\/p>\n

During the debate on the Easter Sunday Attacks in Parliament in March 2021, JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake repeatedly alluded to a Malaysian dimension to the bombing conspiracy, including calls to a certain mobile telephone from one of the overseas terror suspects who reportedly managed to get ISIS to take responsibility for the attacks. \u201cWho did that mobile telephone number in Malaysia belong to,\u201d Dissanayake said, dangling a tantalizing question he obviously knew the answer to but was not at liberty to say. [See video here<\/a><\/span>]<\/p>\n

MI intervention to remove intelligence officer from CID custody<\/p>\n

Harin Fernando also revealed based on testimony provided to the Presidential Commission on the Easter attacks that an intelligence officer arrested in connection with the bombings had been whisked away into the custody of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) before a statement could be recorded by police. When they took the arrested officer from CID custody, military intelligence officials had said the suspect was \u201cone of their projects,\u201d said the SJB MP in his explosive speech.<\/p>\n

Investigations by former CID Director Shani Abeysekara had revealed that the suspect had had discussions with at least one suspect involved in the attack, according to Fernando. He said the connection between the bombers and the intelligence officer had been traced through an IP address.<\/p>\n

Fernando insisted he was basing his revelations on the testimony of Chief Inspector Sampath Kumara Senaratne, formerly Officer In Charge of the CID\u2019s Digital Forensic Laboratory which revealed details about the arrest of the intelligence officer and his removal from CID custody by the DMI, had not been included in the Commission Report. CI Senaratne\u2019s testimony had been heard and recorded by lawyers and observers present at the Commission sittings, he explained. \u201cI challenge the Government to make public all of the testimony provided to the Commission, if they accuse me of lying about this,\u201d an insistent Fernando said.<\/p>\n

Omissions by the Janak Silva Commission on Easter bombings<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The omission of CI Senaratne\u2019s testimony and its failure to pursue the line of inquiry and summon so-called masterminds of the attacks to testify, raises deep questions about the conduct of the Commission itself.<\/p>\n

The Presidential Commission led by now Supreme Court Justice Janak De Silva was appointed by former President Maithripala Sirisena. The Presidential Commission was meant to be a 9\/11 style broad inquisition, that would uncover the motive and modus operandi of the terror attacks and precisely identify the security failures that led to their success.<\/p>\n

Similarly, there is no indication so far that evidence provided in camera by the wife of Zahran had been included in the report. Opposition MPs charged that her testimony was considered so sensitive that her evidence had been recorded in-camera. Colombo Telegraph previously reported<\/a><\/span> that her evidence had indicated her husband\u2019s funds and handlers were part of a state security network.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, the statement made by former IGP Pujith Jayasundara before the Presidential Commission on the Easter attacks, that the sole surviving member of the suicide bomber squad had made<\/a><\/span> a phone call to a military intelligence officer 20 minutes before detonating himself was never investigated further by the Commission.<\/p>\n

Justice Janak Silva\u2019s commission failed to call for the phone data records of the failed Taj Samudra bomber from law enforcement following IGP Jayasundera\u2019s statement and did not appear to take any further action to determine the identity of the intelligence officer the bomber had spoken with on April 19 2019 shortly before he blew himself up at an inn in Dehiwala. It is unclear whether the Commission ever questioned high ranking Military Intelligence Officers about the alleged phone call. Certainly, no further evidence or investigation of Jayasundera\u2019s claim was recorded in the Commission report.<\/p>\n

Fernando\u2019s speech, during which he wore a signature black shawl to express solidarity with the victims of the Easter bombings, was repeatedly interrupted by ruling party back-benchers who appeared desperate to prevent the revelations being entered into the Hansard of Parliament.<\/p>\n

See full video:<\/p>\n