Image: Jameel was one of the Easter Sunday suicide bombers.
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told Parliament that the State Intelligence Service (SIS) failed to act on a crucial alert received from the Taj Samudra Hotel on April 20, 2019, regarding Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameel — one of the suicide bombers involved in the Easter Sunday attacks.
The Minister revealed that the hotel had emailed SIS at 4:52 p.m. on April 20, informing them of Jameel’s check-in. Jameel was already on a terrorism watch list, yet no action was taken, he said.
Jameel did not carry out an explosion at the Taj Samudra. He later detonated a bomb at the Tropical Inn in Dehiwala.
Minister Wijepala said that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is now probing why the warning was ignored and who within the SIS failed to act. He also noted that Jameel had been under surveillance by intelligence agencies since 2015, as previously revealed before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter attacks.
Furthermore, the Minister also shared details about the multiple DNA tests to verify the reported death of Pulasthini Mahendran, alias Sarah Jasmin.
“A DNA report was requested on two occasions to confirm the death of Pulasthini Mahendran, also known as Sarah Jasmin, following reports that she died in a suicide bombing on April 24, 2019. On both occasions, the DNA did not match samples from her close relatives. A third DNA test, this time involving a sample from her mother, was called during the tenure of Minister Sarath Weerasekara as Minister of Public Security.”
The Minister said that the manner in which the samples were obtained has raised serious doubts, which the authorities are currently investigating.
The Minister made these comments during the Adjournment Debate on the Easter Sunday Attack in Parliament today.
(with the inputs from NewsWire)