DILEEPA PEIRIS MUST RETRACT & APOLOGIZE TO THE ARMED FORCES DEPUTY MINISTER ARUNA JAYASEKERA — COMMANDER, SECURITY FORCES EAST IN APRIL 2019 — MUST SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
SAINTHAMARUTHU: DID THE ARMED FORCES KILL 16 PEOPLE — OR DID THE TERRORISTS BLOW THEMSELVES UP? There is an allegation made in court on 15 September 2026 that cannot simply be allowed to pass into the public record without being challenged. Additional Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris reportedly told the Fort Magistrate’s Court during proceedings in the case involving former SIS Director Suresh Sallay, that investigators were examining whether those inside the Sainthamaruthu house were prevented from being taken alive by the military. In other words: he was alleging that THE ARMED FORCES DELIBERATELY KILLED PEOPLE WHO COULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN ALIVE? This is an extraordinarily serious allegation against the Armed Forces. Where is his evidence?
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1119411390647267
It is not the same as saying that the circumstances of the deaths should be investigated.
It is not the same as asking whether excessive force was used.
It is an allegation that members of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces deliberately killed 16 people to prevent them being captured alive.
It is an allegation of deliberate killing — ඝාතනය කළා — against the Armed Forces.
And before such an allegation is allowed to become accepted as fact, the country deserves to know:
WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?
A senior public servant cannot use a Court room to smear the National Army.
BUT WHY WAS THIS NOT PART OF THE EASTER PROSECUTION CASE?
Sainthamaruthu happened on 26 April 2019.
It was investigated after the Easter Sunday attacks.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry examined the Easter attacks and Sainthamaruthu.
The Attorney General later filed charges against former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former IGP Pujith Jayasundara over the Easter Sunday attacks.
855 CHARGES WERE FILED AGAINST EACH.
So where was this allegation?
When was this allegation investigated & by whom?
Why is the ASG suddenly introducing this allegation now?
IF THE ARMED FORCES WERE SUSPECTED OF DELIBERATELY KILLING PEOPLE AT SAINTHAMARUTHU WHO COULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN ALIVE — WAS THIS INVESTIGATED THEN?
If yes:
WHAT WAS THE FINDING?
If no:
WHY NOT?
And if this is genuinely new:
WHAT NEW EVIDENCE HAS EMERGED BETWEEN FILING OF CASE AGAINST THE FORMER IGP & DEFENSE SECRETARY & 2026?
WHAT CHANGED?
GO BACK TO 26 APRIL 2019
Five days after the Easter Sunday massacre, people in Sainthamaruthu became suspicious of occupants of a newly rented house.
The Armed Forces did not mysteriously discover the house and arrive to execute its occupants.
Local Muslim residents raised the alarm.
A resident reportedly saw a man with a rifle inside the house.
Residents gathered and questioned the occupants.
Police and Army were then alerted.
This was a community tip-off.
Security forces subsequently moved in.
And what happened?
Gunfire came from inside.
Then came explosions.
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/sri-lankan-army-isis-muslims-is-attack-njt-5699621/
Contemporary reporting recorded three explosions, with the occupants of the house triggering explosives as security forces closed in.
Inside and around the premises investigators subsequently found the physical remnants of a terrorist operation — explosives, detonators, gelignite, ball bearings, suicide equipment and material associated with the Islamic State.
This was not an innocent family home suddenly attacked by the Army.
It was a terrorist safe house.
AND THEN COMES THE MOST IMPORTANT FACT
When the security forces entered the destroyed premises, two people were found alive.
They were:
Fathima Hadiya — Zahran Hashim’s wife
and
their young daughter.
The child was injured.
Hadiya was injured.
And what did the Army do?
THE ARMY RESCUED THEM.
The Army did not kill them.
The Army did not leave them to die.
The Army evacuated them for medical treatment.
If the allegation is that the military deliberately killed everyone who could reveal information about the Easter attacks:
WHY DID THE ARMY SAVE Zahran’s WIFE?
WHY DID THE ARMY SAVE Zahran’s DAUGHTER?
Why were they taken to hospital?
Why was Hadiya subsequently available to investigators?
THE PERSON MOST CAPABLE OF PROVIDING INFORMATION ABOUT Zahran’s NETWORK WAS FOUND ALIVE BY THE ARMY.
That fact alone demands an explanation from anyone advancing the theory that the Army’s purpose was to eliminate witnesses.
https://www.dailymirror.lk/news-features/Battle-of-Sainthamaruthu/131-166282
THERE WAS ALSO A VIDEO
This is another piece of evidence that must not disappear from the discussion.
A video associated with the terrorist group and its preparations.
Media also report clothing and an ISIS flag found during the raids corresponded with the video of the attackers pledging allegiance to ISIS.
The later FBI investigation also documented the ISIS allegiance video and identified Zahran at its centre.
https://www.facebook.com/adaderana/videos/854272021591973/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3nKmYNrRhs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqsED64OpuQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh3pCk3xkgc
WHAT DID 2019 NEWS REPORTS SAY?
News reports described the occupants triggering explosives.
The Sunday Times reported that inmates of the house triggered three explosions as STF and Army personnel attempted to search the premises.
The Indian Express reported that most of the dead died in a suicide blast inside the house.
The Washington Post reported three explosions and an exchange of gunfire with a man carrying an AK-47.
And the FBI’s later investigative account recorded that ISIS-in-Sri-Lanka members engaged security forces in a shootout and eventually detonated an IED.
So the question is
WHAT NEW EVIDENCE HAS EMERGED THAT NOW JUSTIFIES ACCUSING THE ARMED FORCES OF DELIBERATELY KILLING THE PEOPLE INSIDE?
DILEEPA PEIRIS MUST EXPLAIN THE SEVEN-YEAR GAP
Where is the new evidence?
What changed between April 2019 and September 2026?
Where is the forensic report proving that the Armed Forces caused the deaths?
Where are the post-mortems?
Where is the ballistic evidence?
Where is the Government Analyst’s report?
Where is the explosive analysis?
Where is the ammunition record?
Where is the operational order saying:
“DO NOT TAKE THEM ALIVE”?
Who gave that order?
Who received it?
Who heard it?
Who carried it out?
Which victim was killed pursuant to that order?
And what forensic evidence establishes that fact?
These are not unreasonable questions.
They are the minimum questions that must be answered before a grave allegation against the Armed Forces is presented as though it were established fact.
THE FBI RECORD CANNOT BE IGNORED
The FBI was not conducting a political debate.
It conducted an investigation into the Easter Sunday terrorist network.
Its account records the Sainthamaruthu confrontation and says that ISIS-in-Sri-Lanka members engaged in a shootout with security forces and eventually detonated an IED, killing six men, three women and six children.
It records that no security-force personnel were killed.
So again:
WHAT IS THE NEW EVIDENCE THAT OVERRIDES THIS ACCOUNT?
If the answer is that new evidence exists, produce it.
If the answer is that investigators are merely examining a possibility, then say exactly that.
Do not smear the National Army in a Court.
WHAT DID THE PCoI HEAR?
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry also examined the Sainthamaruthu incident.
It heard evidence concerning the identification of those who died.
It heard evidence concerning Zahran’s family.
And it heard evidence that Hadiya and her daughter were found severely injured and alive inside the premises.
THE LOGIC HAS TO BE TESTED
The allegation is attempting to make the Public believe:
The Armed Forces knew people inside possessed information (but it was Muslim residents who tipped the Police to the house)
The Armed Forces surrounded the house
The Armed Forces deliberately prevented them from being captured alive.
The Armed Forces killed them.
But then:
THE ARMY RESCUED Zahran’s WIFE.
THE ARMY RESCUED Zahran’s CHILD.
THE ARMY TOOK THEM TO HOSPITAL.
HADIYA LATER PROVIDED INFORMATION.
If the objective was to erase witnesses:
WHY SAVE THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT SURVIVORS?
That is the contradiction that Dileepa cannot ignore
AND WHAT ABOUT THE ARUNA JAYASEKERA RECORD?
Major General Aruna Jayasekera was Commander, Security Forces — East.
He was at the scene.
He spoke about the operation immediately afterwards.
He was not reconstructing events seven years later.
Therefore, the present Deputy Defence Minister has a direct responsibility to answer the allegation now being placed against the Armed Forces.
ARUNA JAYASEKERA MUST SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT.
Was there an order to kill?
Was there an order not to accept surrender?
Did the occupants open fire?
Who detonated the explosives?
What did the soldiers encounter?
WAS THERE EVER AN ORDER TO KILL?
WAS THERE EVER AN ORDER NOT TO ACCEPT SURRENDER?
Who rescued Hadiya?
Who rescued her child?
And what evidence existed in April 2019 concerning the cause of the deaths?
The country deserves those answers from the man who commanded the Eastern theatre.
DO NOT MIX UP THE THREE-WHEELER
The three-wheeler incident is separate.
Contemporary reporting says security personnel fired at a three-wheeler after it failed to heed orders to stop. One woman died and others were injured. The Washington Post reported that those occupants were not connected to the house.
That incident can and should be investigated on its own facts.
But it cannot be used to manufacture a connection with the deaths inside the terrorist safe house.
TWO INCIDENTS.
TWO SETS OF FACTS.
TWO SEPARATE INVESTIGATIONS.
NOW THE BIGGER QUESTION
The hearing on 15 September was the Suresh Sallay PTA arrest case.
The allegations being advanced by ASG Dileepa concern the alleged conduct of military/state intelligence and the armed forces.
But why, during that hearing, is the narrative repeatedly expanding from alleged PTA arrest of Suresh Sallay to allegations that potentially tarnish the entire Armed Forces?
First, military intelligence is portrayed as having direct links to Zahran, and received information about an attack and allegedly deliberately withheld it.
Then the Armed Forces are brought into the narrative through an allegation that soldiers may have deliberately killed people at Sainthamaruthu.
IS THERE A LARGER OBJECTIVE BEHIND REPEATEDLY CASTING THE ARMED FORCES AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AS PART OF THE EASTER SUNDAY STORY?
The repeated introduction of increasingly grave allegations against military intelligence and the Armed Forces warrants scrutiny of:
- the sources of each allegation;
- the documentary evidence supporting it;
- the chronology in which they are suddenly emerging;
- whether previously investigated facts are being recast;
- whether allegations concerning separate institutions are being combined into one narrative;
- and whether the evidence actually supports the conclusions being suggested.
IF THERE IS A BIGGER CONSPIRACY, FIND THE EVIDENCE.
IF THERE IS NOT, DO NOT CREATE ONE THROUGH INFERENCE.
That is precisely why the evidence must be placed before the public.
The Armed Forces cannot be collectively smeared because an allegation is being examined.
And an Additional Solicitor General should be particularly careful because a statement made before court carries enormous public weight.
DILEEPA PEIRIS MUST ANSWER
If the allegation is that the Armed Forces deliberately killed people who could have been captured:
SHOW THE EVIDENCE.
If there is no such evidence:
RETRACT THE ALLEGATION.
And if the statement has unfairly cast the Armed Forces as perpetrators of deliberate killings when the contemporary record indicates that the occupants detonated explosives and that the Army rescued the only two survivors:
APOLOGIZE TO THE ARMED FORCES.
Because the distinction matters.
THE ARMY DID NOT NEED TO “KILL” THE PEOPLE INSIDE.
THE OCCUPANTS DETONATED THE EXPLOSIVES.
HADIYA SURVIVED.
HER CHILD SURVIVED.
THE ARMY RESCUED THEM.
And those facts were known in April 2019.
Facts cannot be twisted in 2026.
ARUNA JAYASEKERA — SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
You were Commander, Security Forces East.
You were at Sainthamaruthu.
You spoke at the time.
You know what happened.
You know what your troops faced.
You know that Zahran’s wife survived.
You know that his daughter survived.
You know that soldiers rescued them.
THE COUNTRY NOW NEEDS YOUR VOICE.
Do not allow an allegation made seven years later to rewrite what happened on 26 April 2019.
DILEEPA PEIRIS MUST RETRACT & APOLOGIZE TO THE ARMED FORCES.
ARUNA JAYASEKERA MUST SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT.
SAINTHAMARUTHU MUST NOT BE REWRITTEN IN 2026.
THE RECORD MUST SPEAK.
The General Public & Citizens deserve the Truth – not to be misled with politicized new versions that ultimately tarnish the National Armed Forces & Intel Agencies thereby weakening the Nation’s security apparatus. When such happens who takes advantage & who suffers?
Shenali D Waduge
