The Catholic Church will formally petition President Anura Kumara Dissanayake this week to remove Deputy Defence Minister Maj. Gen. (retd) Aruna Jayasekera from his post pending investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, escalating the Church’s confrontation with the government on the seventh anniversary of the bombings.
Rev. Father Rohan Silva OMI, head of the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR), said signatures from Catholic clergy have been collected since Friday and will be finalised on April 21. The petition will be handed to the President on or around the anniversary itself.
Father Silva said an impartial inquiry cannot proceed while Jayasekera holds a defence portfolio, because he served as Security Forces Commander, East, when members of Zahran Hashim’s National Thowheed Jamaath blew themselves up at a hideout in Sainthamaruthu after being surrounded by police and the army. The CSR’s “Memory, Pain and Hope” report launch last week first raised the demand publicly.
Top Church spokesperson Rev. Father Cyril Gamini Fernando said the Church was satisfied with the pace of the ongoing CID investigation launched on Father Silva’s complaint after the 2023 UK Channel 4 programme on the Easter conspiracy. He alleged, however, that the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) continued to interfere with witness statements, citing a recent CID ‘B’ report to the Fort Magistrate’s Court.
Father Fernando also called for establishing an Independent Public Prosecutor’s Office, arguing the Attorney General’s handling of high-profile cases has exposed shortcomings. The NPP manifesto pledged such an office and the cabinet decided on May 7, 2025 to proceed, but it has yet to be set up.
Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila rejected the demand, telling The Island there was “absolutely no need” to remove Jayasekera and reiterating his position that Zahran Hashim alone was the mastermind of the bombings.
The Vatican Ambassador is expected to join a march from Maris Stella College, Negombo to St Sebastian’s Church on Tuesday afternoon. The attacks on churches and hotels killed more than 260 people on April 21, 2019.
