Former intelligence chief admits not communicating with law and order ministers

COLOMBO (News1st): A former intelligence chief has conceded that he had never communicated with the ministers of law and order under the previous government during his tenure before last year's April 21st attacks. In a testimony at the presidential commission probing the attacks, former Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis said he had neither met nor spoken with Sagala Ratnayake or Ranjith Madduma Bandara, who were the ministers of law and order during his term in office. Mendis had also said that the police had not taken action to arrest the group involved in the bombings before the carnage. He noted that only three out of six organizations had been banned upon the recommendations of the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the State Intelligence Service. The All Ceylon Thawheed Jamaath, Sri Lanka Thawheed Jamaath and Ceylon Thawheed Jamaath were not banned since they did not show signs of extremist ideologies, he said. Accordingly, the government had only banned the National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ), Jamaathé Millathé Ibrahim and Wilaayath As Seylani extremist organizations. The former intelligence chief told investigators although he felt that the NTJ must be banned, he had not submitted a proposal to that effect to higher authorites.