Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has ruled out having an international-aided independent probe into the 2019 Easter bombings by a local Islamist ex🤡tremist group as he slammed the Western media for its double standard🔯s.
Nine suicide bombers belonging to the local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS carried out a series of﷽ devastating blasts that tore through three Catholic c🅘hurches and as many luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing nearly 270 people, including 11 Indians, and injuring over 500.
In September, UK’s Channel 4 television station aired a d🔯ocumentary titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings - Dispatches’, alleging the involvement and complicity of certain government officials, including intelligence service chief Major General Suresh Sallay, in orchestrating the 2019 Easter suicide bombings.
It called the attacks a "crafted act” aimed at forcing a political change✱ in favour of the then-powerful Rajapaksa brothers.
During a fiery interview with the German state-owned broadcaster Deꦫutsche Welle (DW) against the backdrop of Channel 4's allegations, Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka will not have any in💝ternational inquiry into the Easter blasts. "It is out," he said.
"The Sri Lankan government does not have international investigations. Full stop. Few people may want (it), but the Parliament ꦯdoesn't," he said, PTI report mentioned.
Referring to an FBI report on the terror attack, Wickremesinghe said, “No one o▨utside was involved."
“We had the FBI, we had the Brℱitish Police, the Australians, Indians, Chinese and the Pakistanis. ✨If those secret services have given reports, what are these allegations?” he questioned the interviewer, the report mentioned.
The president accused the Western world of double standards in calling for an international investig💛ation in Lanka when the Western governments had not allowed any international inquiries when accusatiꦇons were made against them.
"Germany does not have such inquiries. The UK does not have such inquiries. What international inquiries have they gone into? Why is it for Sri Lankans and Asians? You think we are sec🍰ond class?" Wickremesinghe asked, as per the report.
"You need to take this Western attitude out. The Weste🎃rn media thinks we are bad. The way we have an inquiry is by using Sri Lankan personnel," he said, it𒐪 mentioned.
Wickremesinghe has pledged to appoint a parliamentary select committee to investigate allegations levelled by the British channel that the whole attack wasꦫ a conspiracy and there is a mastermind behind the attacks.
“You are talking nonsense. You have no right to ask me this question. Do you think we are second class? You need to ꦉtake this Western attitude out. You stop it, I stop it, We go off," he retorted angrily when the interviewer suggested that his government stood in the dock for its lack of accountability for human rights violations, the report mentioned.
The president said that his government has rejected the "wrong" report of the UN Human Rights Commission, it mentioned.
