The Prime Minister said the Security Forces have succeeded in apprehending those who were involved in the attacks while stressing the importance of taking steps to prevent a recurrence of these type tragic incidents. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that all parties should get together to bring normalcy to the country following the Easter Sunday attacks that killed over 250 people.The Prime Miniser was addressing civil society activists on the current situation in the country at Temple Trees yesterday.
“Our Security Forces and the Police took swift action to unravel key information in connection with the attacks by April 21st evening (Sunday) and much more information will be unearthed in connection with these attacks in the future. He said he discussed about the situation with the President who was in Singapore, following the attacks.
He believed that religious activities at mosques will resume by next Friday. He also believed that the Masses at Catholic churches will also be held from next Sunday. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the Education Minister has taken steps to start the next school term by May 6. The Prime Minister said the tourism industry will recover by August or September after foreign countries lift the travel advisories issued on Sri Lanka following the deadly attacks.
“We faced the scourge of terrorism for over three decades. Now we are facing the challenge of global terrorism, a new form of terrorism,” the Prime Minister said. He said that the country has a large number of intelligence officers and they can trace any terrorist activities taking place in the country. “We need the support of international intelligence agencies to deal with global terrorism. We need cutting edge technology to deal with this issue,” he said.
He said that all countries in the world should get together to deal with global terrorism. The United Nations opened an office for counter terrorism. The United Nations have also adopted United Nations Global Counter terrorism Strategy and Sri lanka became a party to many counterterrorism convention in October last year. “We cannot work along. We need the support of other countries. We need to share our intelligence information, if we are to deal with global terrorism,” he said. He also said that separate units should be established in Sri Lanka to provide psychological counsellng to the family members of those who were killed in the attacks.
The Prime Minister said the agencies are not connected to each other. “The Police department is not working in cooperation with the Sri Lanka Customs and the Department of Emigration and Immigration,” the Prime Minister said. He also stressed the importance of sharing information with these key public agencies dealing with immigration, law enforcement etc.

“Some quarters have raised opposition to having links with Interpol,” he said. The Prime Minister added that new laws would be brought to keep a close tab on extremist organizations which pose a threat to national security, religious and ethnic harmony. “There is suspicion among the civil society that new rules and regulations will deprive them of their freedom. “I assure them that these new laws will not violate the fundamental rights of the people nor their freedom,” Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said.