Sri Lanka: Former Sri Lankan President Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has denied claims from a British TV program that suggested he used ISIL (ISIS)-inspired attackers for 2019 suicide bombings to destabilize the country and secure his election victory later that year.
“To claim that a group of Islamic extremists launched suicide attacks in order to make me president is absurd,” Mr. Rajapaksa said in a public statement.
The former President said the documentary on Britain’s Channel 4 television was “mostly an anti-Rajapaksa tirade.”
During a broadcast, Channel 4 interviewed a person who claimed to have organized a meeting between a local ISIL-inspired group known as the National Thowheed Jamath and a high-ranking state intelligence official who supported Mr. Rajapaksa. The purpose of the meeting was allegedly to devise a plan to cause turmoil and assist Rajapaksa in winning the presidential election.
Mr. Rajapaksa, a former senior defense official, was considered a candidate who prioritized law and order. His older brother, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, lost the presidential election in 2015 after serving as president for a decade.
The National Thowheed Jamath is accused of carrying out six suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday in 2019, which targeted churches and tourist hotels and killed 269 people.
Concerns about national security played a significant role in Rajapaksa’s rise to power. However, he was compelled to step down in July 2022 due to widespread protests related to an economic crisis.
In his statement, Rajapaksa clarified that he had no contact with the intelligence officer mentioned in the documentary from the time he resigned as defense ministry secretary in 2015 until he assumed the presidency in 2019.
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