COLOMBO: Sri Lankan government had took the detailed India’s intelligence alert warnings about an imminent terrorist attack, including on the morning of the attack lightly.
Sri Lanka is deep in mourning after strings of blasts on Easter Sunday at crowded churches and hotels left 321 people dead and 500 injured. The government has admitted that it had prior warnings about the suicide bombers, but no top minister was told and no one took it seriously enough to avert the disaster.
According to sources told Economic Times from Colombo on the condition of anonymity, Senior Lankan officials (Defence Secretary and police chief who have now been sacked) had refused to pay heed based on its belief claiming that New Delhi is trying to instigate Colombo against Pakistan by pointing fingers at the island’s Muslim community.
It is no secret that Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a long history of very cordial and friendly relations and both countries share commonality of views. Whenever Sir Lanka needed Pakistan, Pakistan has always been there. Similarly whenever Pakistan needed; Sri Lanka has always been there.
It may be recalled that during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, Colombo provided transit and refueling facilities to Pakistan International Airlines. The relationship is ‘multi-faceted’3 and multi-sectoral and that why it didn’t want to dragged into what it claims “India-led alliance” against Pakistan.
Therefore, felt India’s claim that Lanka could face suicide attacks a bogey against Islamabad.
On Monday the Sri Lanka government banned women from covering their face in public, bringing it into line with a number of European countries, including France, Denmark and Belgium.
Several Muslims felt the dress code distracted from the bigger problem: the intelligence failure that led to the devastating attacks.
Sri Lanka’s population of 21 million is a patchwork of ethnicities and religions, dominated by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority. Hindus (12.5 per cent of the population) and Muslims (9 per cent) follow, with Christians fourth (7 per cent).
With agency inputs