Udaya Prabhath Gammanpila, leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya and former lawmaker, has given the government a seven-day deadline to publicly release two key reports related to the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks—the SI Imam report and the ANJ de Alwis report. These reports have yet to be made public.
Speaking at a press conference held at the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya headquarters today (14th), Gammanpila warned that if the government fails to release the reports within this period, he will take it upon himself to make them public. He expressed confidence that the release of these documents would prompt those who currently support NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake to “come to their senses.”
Gammanpila criticized the government’s handling of the reports, referencing a previous statement he made about President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to Katuwapitiya Church, where he had called on the president to present the two presidential inquiry reports into the Easter attacks. Journalists had subsequently questioned government media spokesperson Vijitha Herath, who claimed that the government was investigating how portions of the reports had gone missing.
“Honorable Minister, no records have been lost. The pages are not missing,” Gammanpila stated, clarifying that the sensitive section of the Janak de Silva Commission’s report—pertaining to national security—was intentionally withheld from Parliament but had been handed over to Bishop Harold Anthony, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, under the instruction of President Wickremesinghe. However, Gammanpila said, “The mastermind behind the attacks has not been identified in these sections.”
He reiterated that the Catholic Church, like his party, is urging the government to release not just the Janak de Silva report, but also the SI Imam and ANJ de Alwis reports, which have not been made public. Gammanpila explained that the SI Imam report was submitted to the former president on June 25, 2024, while the ANJ de Alwis report was handed over on September 14, 2024.
Gammanpila emphasized that he is in possession of both reports, obtained from the President’s Secretariat and the Attorney General’s Department, but is refraining from publishing them out of respect for the fact that they were produced by presidentially-appointed committees. “If there are missing pages, as the government claims, they can let me know, and I will provide them because I have them,” he added.
Concluding his statement, Gammanpila issued a stern warning: “If the government does not make these reports public within exactly seven days, I will release them myself. And once they are published, I believe that people who have been misled will be able to see the truth.”
In a final note, Gammanpila assured that the documents are securely stored and scanned copies have been uploaded online. “Don’t plan on breaking into my office at night—I have the records safeguarded.”
