The story of Suresh Sale's involvement in the Easter attack, after secretly meeting in a coconut plantation

Various reports have periodically emerged regarding the involvement of Major General Suresh Salley, former Director of the State Intelligence Service, who was arrested today, in the Easter attacks. Evidence regarding this was also revealed in an Al Jazeera video report. Two committees appointed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe to investigate the Easter attacks have definitively confirmed that Major General Suresh Salley, former Director of the State Intelligence Service, and Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Nilantha Jayawardena are guilty in connection with the said attack.

. Furthermore, these investigations have revealed that Suresh Salley and Pillayan's former media secretary, Asad Maulana, secretly met at a coconut plantation in Puttalam to provide the necessary background and facilities for Zahran Hashim and his terrorist group to launch the attack. Additionally, phone records confirm that Salley maintained a long-term relationship with Jameel, who was directly involved in the attack. Senior officials of the Attorney General's Department have also confirmed that it was Suresh Salley who made a phone call to Jameel, who left the Taj Samudra Hotel before the attack, from an area near the Rameswaram coastline in South India.

Information has been revealed that then-President Ranil and Sagala Ratnayaka instructed the relevant authorities to completely destroy both of these crucial committee reports, which contained such serious information, about three weeks before the last presidential election, so that no one could access them. Two days before these reports disappeared from the Attorney General's Department, a secret four-hour discussion was held at Sagala Ratnayaka's residence on Flower Road, Colombo, with Suresh Salley and Nilantha Jayawardena, with Ranil Wickremesinghe also joining by phone. Among the reports thus disappeared are the committee report that investigated the Channel 4 revelations and the former Judge Alwis Committee report that investigated the failure to take action despite receiving accurate intelligence information. Currently, several civil parties, including the Catholic Church, former Director of Criminal Investigations Shani Abeysekera, and Ministry Secretary Ravi Seneviratne, are strongly urging current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to promptly make these reports public.

Meanwhile, through a confidential document recently found abandoned in a Colombo restaurant, several more controversial details about the hidden operations of the State Intelligence Service have come to light. The list includes the names of 85 individuals who secretly received salaries from the intelligence agency during Suresh Salley's leadership, among whom are prominent journalists, television presenters, YouTube channel creators, businessmen, and human rights activists. It has been alleged that these individuals were paid to protect Salley and his intelligence network from the Easter attack investigations and to change public opinion, a situation that has created intense public debate about the involvement of intelligence agencies.

Foreign intelligence agencies have reported that the connection between Zahran Hashim, considered the mastermind of the Easter attacks, and Suresh Salley dates back to the time when Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the Secretary of Defence. The information states that Salley met Zahran in the Kattankudy area and provided instructions and financial assistance to establish the National Thowheeth Jama'ath organization, and later held further crucial discussions with Zahran in Malaysia, together with then Sri Lankan Ambassador J.M. Muzammil. Following the political upheaval after the Easter attacks, the then-President, who came to power, also took steps to swiftly recall Salley, who was in India for military training, and appoint him as the Director of State Intelligence.

Under this highly complex backdrop, reports emerged that an organized hunt was launched targeting Mr. Tharindu Jayawardena, President of the Young Journalists' Association, who continuously revealed investigative information about the Easter attacks and the involvement of intelligence officers. Mr. Tharindu Jayawardena has officially complained to the Acting Inspector General of Police that a conspiratorial attempt was launched to arrest this journalist by misleading the court through an officer named Induka Silva, the OIC of the Homicide Investigation Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department. The said investigating officer had previously been removed from the Criminal Investigation Department on charges of acting partially, and serious suspicions have arisen that he has been recalled to that position with the aim of suppressing the current investigations.