Sri Lanka needs to keep political difference aside and act: Namal Rajapaksa

Reuters photo

Sri Lanka witnessed its worst terror attack on Easter Sunday killing 290 people and wounded over 500 in a series of devastating blasts at churches and luxury hotels in the country.

Speaking to Zee Media, Namal Rajapaksa – Sri Lankan politician and son of former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa – says, Sri Lanka, as a country,  needs to come together. 

Here are some excerpts of the interview with  Rajapaksa:

Question: What is the situation on the ground?

Namal Rajapaksa: Everyone is shocked to hear what has happened. We haven't seen a blast in this country in the last 10 year. It is a devastating and unfortunate incident. We strongly believe the government should act to stop this kind of activities. Clearly, the PM accepts that they got to know about this (terror attack) a few weeks ago, then and there they should have acted.

Question: Was it an intelligence failure?

Namal Rajapaksa: We can't blame on the intelligence failure. With limited resources, and what we know in the last four years, Sri Lanka has become the weakest when it comes to intelligence because of the certain political decisions taken by the government. Remember, by the first or second week of April, the information was given to the government. We will not spend the time to blame the president or PM but this is the time, we have to come together as a nation, keep our political difference aside. As a country, we have to support each other. We know even now, on our way to meet you guys, there was a blast. This has never happened, even during the wartime, Sri Lanka never saw this.

Question: Why was Sri Lanka targetted?
Namal Rajapaksa: If you look at our region, Sri Lanka has geopolitical importance. At the same time, Sri Lanka has the weakest intelligence since 2015. Once you destabilize your intelligence, once you start punishing your intelligence officer, once you get together with certain nations to disarm your intelligence, for fighting against terror for 30 years, obviously, intelligence becomes weak.