By. Ashoka Peiris
Days after being released from jail, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara has set the stage for another controversy. The (BBS) General Secretary mentioned that he has informed Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith about the Easter Sunday attacks. However, he never took any action to protect their people.
Furthermore, delivering remarks to the media, Gnanasara said that the government intelligence services and officials concerned had prior knowledge of the attack.
“We approached the cardinal even before the attack and had a long discussion with him, warning him of the possible threat, but he ignored our warnings,” he accused us.
“As the General Secretary of the BBS, we had the authority to inform the relevant personnel about the attack, but we did not have the authority to control the country’s security forces. We received a lot of secret information that even intelligence services could not access,” Gnanasara said.
“I have been warning about the attack since 2014. I sent 17 letters to the respective government leaders at the time. I also raised concerns about the emergence of several other extremist groups in the country,” he said.
“We revealed extensive information about ongoing religious extremist groups through the Presidential Task Force on ‘One Country-One Law,’ formed under the government of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa. We gathered all this information independently, without any help from the government. We did it in the interests of protecting the country’s ethnic integrity,” he said.
“Finally, we handed over the report, but unfortunately, no action was taken,” Gnanasara added.
He said he is prepared to cooperate with an investigation initiated by the current government by sharing the information he had.