This story is from April 26, 2019

Defence secretary steps down as Sri Lanka steps up security across island nation

Defence secretary steps down as Sri Lanka steps up security across island nation
President Sirisena admitted that there were “lapses” on the part of defence officials. (NYT)
COLOMBO: As an overwrought Colombo city struggled to return to normal, the divisions within the Maithripala Sirisena government became more pronounced as the country’s defence secretary, Hemasiri Fernando, stepped down from his post on Thursday evening.
The development came even as the country’s health ministry revised the death toll down to 253 from 359, saying that the previous figure was due to a “calculation error”.

“Many victims were badly mutilated... There was double counting,” the ministry said.
Soon after the series of coordinated bombings on Easter Sunday reverberated across the country, President Sirisena admitted that there were “lapses” on the part of defence officials and acknowledged that he had been kept in the dark for “many days” about the intelligence reports of possible attacks.
He had then sought the resignation of the defence secretary and of inspector general of police Pujith Jayasundara. Soon after the explosions, Fernando told reporters that though they had received intelligence reports, “we believed they would be one or two isolated incidents, nothing of such a magnitude”.
Hours before Fernando resigned, the government strengthened its military deployment across the island nation. There were reports of security personnel seizing hand grenades and detonators from locations in and around Colombo.

Meanwhile, in Pugoda town, 40km east of Colombo, local residents heard the sound of an explosion from behind the magistrate’s court. Police media spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara told reporters that the blast, a minor one, was not a controlled explosion, and that no one had been injured. “We are investigating,” he said.
The explosion occurred on a vacant piece of land behind the Pugoda courts. “It did not sound like a big blast,” local resident and garment merchant Mohammed Rasmi told TOI over the phone. “We heard it around 9am.” The largely Sinhala town with some Muslim families in Colombo’s suburbs are mostly garment traders with tailoring units.
The report of the blast heightened tensions in Colombo as the government, without much warning, clamped a twohour curfew in the city on Thursday, asking commercial establishments to shut down and residents to remain indoors from noon till 2pm. Traffic suddenly thinned out and people scurried indoors as the capital city went through another round of fearful anticipation.
Catholic churches were instructed to suspend all services until further orders while the Muslim clergy announced they would not permit a Muslim burial for the eight suicide bombers. Muslim Council of Sri Lanka vice-president Hilmy Ahamed confirmed the news to TOI, saying there wasn’t much of their body parts that remained, barring their heads.
Police spokesman Gunasekara said 18 more suspects were arrested overnight, raising the number of detainees to 66, including four members of Ceylon Thowheed Jamaat and six All Ceylon Thowheed Jamaat sympathisers. CTJ leader Mohammed Rasmin said he met police officials on Thursday and offered to cooperate in the probe.
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