Sri Lanka’s independent regulator has sacked a senior police officer for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 279 people including 45 foreigners.
Sri Lanka’s National Police Commission dismissed Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Nilantha Jayawardena, then chief of the Sri Lankan State Intelligence Service (SIS), disregarding prior warnings of an impending attack by Islamic extremists.
Court records show that Jayawardena had been alerted to a possible terror strike 17 days before the coordinated suicide attacks on April 21, 2019, which targeted three hotels and three churches.
Photo: AFP
More than 500 people were also wounded in the bombings.
Jayawardena had been found guilty on all seven counts of negligence and dereliction of duty by a disciplinary inquiry led by a retired judge, the police commission said in a statement late on Saturday.
“Considering the gravity of the charges, the Commission decided to give him the maximum punishment,” the statement said.
Following the Easter bombings, Sri Lanka’s worst terror attack on civilians, Jayawardena was removed from his position as SIS chief, but was elevated to the role of deputy head of the police force, overseeing administration.
However, he was placed on compulsory leave a year ago, pending a disciplinary hearing, after repeated judicial orders to take action against him.
A top-level investigation initiated shortly after the attack found that then-Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and four of his senior officials, including Jayawardena, should face criminal prosecution for their lapses.
In accordance with Sri Lankan Supreme Court orders issued in January 2023 following a civil case, they have paid just over US$1 million in damages to the victims.
The 2019 bombings were blamed on a local jihadi group that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has vowed to step up investigations into the Easter attacks and uncover those responsible for the bombings.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS