According to the investigating officer, Salle is accused of having contact with people involved in planning the Easter attacks and aiding in the conspiracy.
What you should know
Sri Lanka has taken a new turn in a seven-year-old controversy and suspicion after the arrest of the country's former intelligence chief in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.
Retired Major General Suresh Salle was taken into custody on Wednesday in a suburb of the capital Colombo on charges of conspiracy and aiding in the attacks that killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, police said.
According to investigating officers, Salle is accused of having contacts with those involved in the Easter attacks and aiding in the conspiracy. He had previously denied involvement in the suicide bombings. The arrest, which came as the seventh anniversary of the attacks on April 21 approached, is seen as a long-awaited step.
The coordinated suicide bombings targeted three high-end hotels in Colombo, two Roman Catholic churches and an evangelical church outside the capital. Although a homegrown jihadist group was found guilty, questions continue to be raised about the background to the attacks. It was the deadliest attack on civilians since the nearly four-decade-long Tamil separatist war ended in 2009.
Salle was promoted to head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) in 2019 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president. But he was dismissed in 2024 when Anura Kumar Dissanayake was elected president. The country's Roman Catholic Church has repeatedly accused the government of failing to identify the real mastermind.
British broadcaster Channel 4 claimed in 2023 that Salle was linked to the Islamist attackers and had met them before the attack. A whistleblower (a person who reveals confidential information) also alleged that the attack was ordered to affect the presidential election. Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced his candidacy two days after the attack and won the election on a promise to eradicate Islamist extremism.
Meanwhile, a former jihadist member claimed that the group received financial support from the military intelligence unit in its early stages. At the time, the government admitted that the military was behind the extremist group. However, while the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the bombings, investigators said there was no evidence to support a direct foreign link.
The attacks injured more than 500 people and severely damaged the tourism industry. In 2021, US authorities charged three Sri Lankans with involvement in the deaths of five American citizens. Three of the 25 suspects convicted by Sri Lanka's High Court are linked to the same case.
The Supreme Court found then-President Maithripala Sirisena and four senior officials guilty of failing to prevent the attacks and fined them $1 million for failing to prevent them. The United Nations has also called for the release of some of the confidential parts of its previous investigation into the incident. The arrest of the former intelligence chief has renewed calls for the truth about the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka.
