President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that he would not allow Tamil or Islamist extremism to raise its head under his rule.
Speaking in Weragala, the President insisted that the perpetrators of the 2019 April 21st attacks will be punished under the current government.
“It is our duty to punish them. We will do that,” Rajapaksa noted.
Citing the presidential commission’s report on the April 21st attacks, the President blamed the previous government for being incapable of preventing the bombings.
“Page 306 the report states, based on this evidence it is difficult for the commission to ascertain why the government including PM Ranil Wickremesinghe failed to take steps to quell Islamist extremism,” he observed.
The President also responded to accusations that he has failed in his presidency.
“I have not failed. For 20 years I went to war for this country and then served as the defence secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. It was then that we managed to end the 30-year long war,” Rajapaksa remarked.