The Criminal Investigation Department has submitted a detailed report to the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court disclosing three specific incidents in which witnesses in the Easter Sunday attacks investigation are being intimidated, with alleged perpetrators linked to military intelligence units and Batticaloa police.
The first incident concerns a key witness who supplied information on the murder of two police officers in Vavunathivu — now attributed by the CID to Zahran Hashim’s group. According to the report, a military intelligence operative contacted the witness, offered money and help to leave the country, and threatened to implicate them in a narcotics case. Two individuals from the Kovil Kulam military intelligence camp were seen tailing the witness on a motorcycle.
The second incident involves a former military intelligence handler who revealed information on former SIS chief Suresh Salley’s suspicious conduct prior to the April 21, 2019 attacks. On March 12, two men on a motorcycle were spotted behaving suspiciously near his wife’s home, checking whether he was present. One was identified as a member of the Negombo sub-unit of military intelligence, and the CID has recorded a statement from him.
The third incident names a witness who disclosed information that military intelligence officers allegedly supplied firearms to Zahran Hashim’s National Thowheed Jamaath extremists. The witness is now facing threats from a police inspector and sergeant attached to the Senior DIG’s office in Batticaloa and a sub-inspector from the Batticaloa Divisional CIB, including threats of illegal detention and shooting.
The 2019 attacks killed 278 people and injured nearly 500. The CID also disclosed that evidence in the Vavunathivu killings was deliberately misdirected to frame former LTTE members.
