Former Sri Lankan President Mathripala Srisena, under whose watch the island nation saw the horrific Easter Sunday attacks in 2019, said that the government should have taken the collective responsibility for the attack. 

The remark came weeks after the report of the presidential inquiry committee in the 2019 bombings was made public. Recommendations of the report include prosecuting the former prime minister (Ranil Wickremesinghe) and other officials for lapses.

“It was the responsibility of the whole government to take steps to prevent terrorism and extremism adding that the President, the Prime Minister, Ministers or officials were not individually responsible in that regard,” Srisena said.      

“I would have taken all the action to provide security to churches, hotels and also to impose curfew in Colombo if I had been informed of the information,” he was quoted as saying by Daily Mirror.

Srisena also said that he was not informed about the intelligence warning passed by a foreign country. Earlier, several reports indicated that Indian agencies had passed on intel inputs on the impending attacks. Despite these inputs, the security establishment of the island nation failed to stop the attack. 

In the aftermath of the attack, the Sri Lankan leaders, instead of taking responsibility and fixing gaps, were seen avoiding accountability.