Ex-SIS director failed to prevent April 21 attacks - witness

COLOMBO (News1st): Former State Intelligence Service (SIS) director Nilantha Jayawardana had not taken appropriate action on the last-minute warnings of last year’s April 21 attacks, a former acting intelligence chief has said. The SIS had a definite opportunity to act on the intelligence warnings received at 8 pm on April 20, Parakrama Lankapura, a former acting SIS director told the presidential commission probing the bombings. The witness, in a testimony, pointed out that the warnings had provided definite information by identifying vulnerable locations, and stressed that taking relevant action could have protected the people. He added that the SIS could have conveyed the warnings to hotels and churches that were targetted during the bombings that killed at least 269 and injured more than 500. The former acting SIS director noted that the warnings could also have been passed onto religious leaders including the Archbishop of Colombo and that intelligence officers could have been deployed for security.