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Sri Lanka cardinal says government hiding truth over Easter attacks
[DAWN] The head of the Catholic church in Sri Lanka on Thursday issued a scathing criticism of the government over the Easter attacks that killed more than 250 people, decrying a "total lack of interest" in determining why intelligence reports were ignored.Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith spoke of his frustrations just hours before he was due to meet Pope Francis and show the pontiff a video with graphic images of the April 21 attacks on three churches and four hotels. The attacks were claimed by krazed killer Islamic State  ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group. "There was a serious lack of responsibility on the part of the government," Ranjith told news hounds. "Now they have appointed all kinds of committees and commissions and there is bickering going on between the sides, you know, (about) who is responsible." President Maithripala Sirisena has criticised a parliamentary investigation, where some have accused him of mishandling national security. Ranjith, 71, said Indian intelligence services first notified Sri Lanka on April 4 of an impending attack and then three times more, including a phone call at 6.45am on the day of the blasts. "But nobody took serious note. This disaster could have been prevented because if I knew that there was an attack planned I would have closed the churches and told the people to go home," he said in answer to a question. Posted by: Fred 2019-06-21 |
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