Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Minister Rauff Hakeem 

SLMC Leader and City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education Minister Rauff Hakeem reproached the Opposition for condemning the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) Report, in a meeting in Kurunegala, this week. 

Minister Hakeem stated that the Opposition raises doubts about the Select Committee Report because they fear that if the Easter Sunday carnage matter is further investigated, the alleged surreptitious activities of the State intelligence and the way they got mishandled by certain covert sources will come to light. This is the very reason for the Opposition to condemn the credibility of the Select Committee Report. 

Minister Rauff Hakeem made this comment in a meeting held in Siyambalagaskotuwa, Kurunegala during a campaign in support of the presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa and his Democratic National Front (DNF). 

Minister Hakeem further added that had the Easter Sunday explosions and killings taken place during Rajapaksa’s regime, Muslims could not have even imagined the levels of horror it would have unleashed on them in its wake. 

Many more in thousands would have gone behind bars. However, the present Government appointed a Committee, headed by the Prime Minister, and managed to get several hundred innocent people released through a panel of selected lawyers. The Government extended its maximum support for this, despite the general hostility the community was facing.

“However, many people are still held in the prisons as suspects. We cannot interfere much in the justice sector. Nevertheless, the Government provided us a mechanism to handle such matters within the law. We really appreciate the efforts taken by the Government to console the affected families, with a touch of human empathy and responsibility, at a time the entire community was engulfed in a state of shock and grief.

“We strongly believe that there is an international conspiracy behind the Easter Sunday attacks which was staged to depict the Sri Lankan Muslims as supporters of terrorism. We must treat this as an unfortunate activity of a group of mercenaries incited by some unscrupulous individuals among us. The Opposition, in its attempt to attack the credibility of the Parliamentary Select Committee tried to mar my persona later, and subvert the issuance of the report.

“By this attempt they think they could make two achievements. Firstly, they fear that if the secret activities of the intelligence division are enlightened, the way this division was misused by certain sources too will come to light. To avoid all these unpresentable details, they are raising doubts on the veracity of the Select Committee Report now.”

President rejects PSC report on Easter Sunday bombings