View From The Neighbourhood: Leniency in Lanka

A weekly look at the public conversations shaping ideas beyond borders — in the Subcontinent.

sri lanka bomb blasts, sri lanka blasts, sri lanka terror attacks, sri lanka bomb blasts death toll, sri lanka terrorist attack death toll, isis, sri lanka news, Indian express — Police officers guard St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, after bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels on Easter, in Sri Lanka. (Reuters/File)

In its May 8 editorial, The Island has continued its unrelenting attack on the Sri Lankan government and President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. In the Sri Lankan Parliament on May 7, “government leaders were cock-a-hoop in Parliament. they bragged that most of the terror suspects had been arrested and normalcy restored”. Yet, argues the editorial, it were these same leaders that “promptly denied” responsibility for the intelligence failures that led to the Easter Sunday attack and instead laid the blame at the feet of the police chief and defence secretary, both of whom have resigned since.