Sri Lanka’s president said Sunday he will appoint a committee chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigatethat the South Asian country’s intelligence was complicit in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people.
The attacks, which included simultaneous suicide bombings, targeted three churches and three tourist hotels. The dead included 42 foreigners from 14 countries. President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s decision to appoint a committee headed by a judge to investigate claims that Sri Lankan intelligence had a hand in the bombings that were carried out by Islamic militants came under pressure from opposition lawmakers, religious leaders, activists as well as the victims’ relatives. They say that previous probes failed to reveal the truth behind the bombings.
Rajapaksa was forced to resign in mid-2022 after mass protests over the country’s worst economic crisis.