By Gothabaya Rajapaksa, who initially did not respond to the Channel 4 video, has responded. He said, “This latest film by Channel 4 is mostly an anti-Rajapaksa tirade aimed at blackening the Rajapaksa legacy from 2005 onwards and is a tissue of lies, just like the previous films broadcast by the same channel.”
Signing a statement as the seventh executive president, he said “To claim that a group of Islamic extremists launched suicide attacks in order to make me president is absurd.”
The government has pledged that “a parliamentary committee to investigate allegations made in the television report will be appointed.”
Undoubtedly, the Rajapaksa family and its associates will come under increasing pressure as calls for an international investigation mount. Cardinal Ranjith Malcom is adamant that he will not give up the struggle for justice, and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has also called for an international inquiry into the bombing attack. “A large majority of the people are of the view that a fair local investigation has not been conducted into this attack,” Premadasa said in Parliament.
