State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardena says there’s a certain amount of instability since five defence secretaries were appointed from 2015 to date and that the State Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Defence generally function as two separate entities.
Testifying before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing Easter Sunday attacks yesterday (6), Wijewardena has stated that he felt the intelligence service had their own autonomy, rather than working together.
The State Minister has noted that the Security Council meetings in 2017 had discussed the clashes between two mosques in Kattankudy as a result of extremist activities in the area, but possible terror attacks were not subjected to discussion.
He has further noted that he had noted received forewarnings prior to the Easter Sunday attacks and that he had gotten to know of the forewarnings received by the intelligence units only after the attacks.
He has further explained that he was called to the Security Council meetings before the 51-day Constitutional crisis took place last year and following the crisis, the President and the Prime Minister were not on good terms.
“I believe that is why we were not summoned to the meetings afterwards,” Wijewardena has noted.
The State Minister has admitted that the intelligence coordination meetings and Security Council meetings had discussed the clashes between two factions in Kattankudy and those who left for Syria and returned to the country but not the terrorist attacks or the formation of terrorist groups.
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