MP Venerable Athuraliye Rathana Thero claims that three years ago intelligence officers had given the President a report regarding extremist group arming themselves and shootouts between these groups, but no action was taken out of fear of Muslim politicians.

He made these comments during an event held today (10) for the launch of the Sri Lanka National Council’s five-point national plan to prevent the infiltration of Islamic State terrorism into the country.

Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and several other religious leaders attended the event held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Colombo.

Sri Lanka National Council’s president, Venerable Rathana Thero, further alleged that a haul of explosives were found in the Wanathawilluwa area which were linked to a politician. “But they were released.” 

He stated that these extremists had existed in the country since 2013 and that they were armed and prominently seen only after 2015,

The MP said that when this started to grow from 2015, the government did not touch this matter out of fear of the Muslim politicians. “That is the true story.”

He alleged that intelligence units had previously reported that extremist groups were arming themselves. He said that in 2016, right in front of the President and himself, intelligence officers had provided a report on these groups arming themselves and shootouts between them.

“But nothing was done regarding this out of fear of politicians,” he said.

Ven. Rathana Thero also urged the President and Prime Minister not to implement policies and plans on “giving land to America” at this point as the country will definitely be a target of global Islamic terrorists if “American camps and built in Trincomalee”.