Sri Lanka’s criminal investigators arrested former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay on Wednesday morning in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks that killed 279 people, including 45 foreign nationals, and crippled the country’s tourism sector.

 

Police said the retired major general was taken into custody at dawn in a suburb of Colombo. An investigating officer told a news outlet that Sallay was arrested on charges of conspiracy and aiding and abetting the attacks.

 

Six near-simultaneous suicide bombings targeted three churches and three luxury hotels on the occasion of Easter in 2019. While officials initially blamed a local extremist group, Sallay was later accused of having links to the plot, allegations he has denied.

 

He was appointed head of the State Intelligence Service in 2019 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president. British broadcaster Channel 4 reported in 2023 that a whistleblower alleged Sallay allowed the attacks to proceed to influence that year’s presidential election.

 

Sallay was dismissed after Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the 2024 election, pledging prosecutions. Earlier, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court found former president Maithripala Sirisena and senior officials negligent for failing to prevent the attacks.