COLOMBO: Sri Lankan investigators arrested a former intelligence chief on Wednesday, the most high-profile official netted in the long-running investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.

Police said retired Major General Suresh Sallay was taken into custody at dawn in a suburb of the capital, Colombo.

"He was arrested for conspiracy and aiding and abetting the Easter Sunday attacks," an investigating officer told AFP.

"He has been in touch with people involved in the attacks, even recently."

The coordinated bombings targeted three upmarket hotels in the capital, two Roman Catholic churches and an evangelical Protestant church outside Colombo. The attacks killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, and were blamed on a homegrown militant group.

Police, in a statement, said that Sallay was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and would be detained for at least three days for questioning.

His arrest was welcomed by the Catholic church, and criticized by his still powerful supporters.

"What we need is the truth behind the Easter attacks," church spokesman Father Cyril Gamini Fernando told AFP. "We want to see justice for all the victims."

The church has accused successive governments of failing to identify the masterminds.

The April 21, 2019 attacks were the worst to target civilians in the country, where at least 100,000 people were killed in nearly four decades of civil war.

Sallay, who was promoted to State Intelligence Service (SIS) chief in 2019 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president, is accused of involvement in organizing the suicide bombings, a charge he denies.

His long-expected arrest came ahead of the seventh anniversary of the bombings.

British broadcaster Channel 4 reported in 2023 that Sallay was linked to the militant bombers and had met them prior to the attack.

A whistleblower told the network that Sallay had permitted the attack to proceed with the intention of influencing that year's presidential election in favor of Rajapaksa.

Two days after the bombings, Rajapaksa declared his candidacy and went on to win the November vote in a landslide after promising to stamp out extremism.

Rajapaksa's then-justice minister Ali Sabry defended Sallay, saying he had contributed to the dismantling of the Tamil Tiger guerrilla network in 2009.

"Undermining officers who once safeguarded the country may offer temporary political advantage, but it weakens morale within the armed forces," Sabry posted on social media.

Funding fanatics
A former member of the militant group told reporters in 2019 that they were originally funded by a military intelligence unit to propagate a fundamentalist ideology in Sri Lanka's multi-ethnic eastern province.

Sallay was employed in the intelligence unit that funded the militant, and the government at the time admitted the military was behind the radical group.

Critics said the militants were funded as a means to create an enemy – and so justify their far larger backing of a radical Buddhist group.

Sallay was promoted to head the SIS, Sri Lanka's main intelligence agency, following Rajapaksa's victory, but was dismissed after Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidency in 2024, promising prosecutions of those behind the attacks.

While local militants were held responsible, Sallay was also accused of orchestrating the attack.

Two days after the bombings, ISIS claimed responsibility, but investigators said they had no evidence to establish a foreign link.

Other investigations faulted the authorities for failing to act on warnings from an Indian intelligence agency.

More than 500 people were wounded in the bombings, which also crippled the island nation's lucrative tourism industry.

US authorities in 2021 charged three Sri Lankans for supporting the Easter attacks, in which five Americans were killed.

The three are among 25 suspects indicted in Sri Lanka's High Court.

The Supreme Court fined then-president Maithripala Sirisena and four senior officials more than $1.03 million in a civil case for their failure to prevent the attacks.

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Sri Lanka arrests ex-spy chief over 2019 Easter bombings