Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando resigned on Thursday, four days after a series of bomb blasts in the island country killed at least 359 people, adaderana.lk reported. President Maithripala Sirisena had on Wednesday asked Fernando and Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara to quit.
There was public outrage against the two officials for their failure to prevent the Easter Sunday bombings despite intelligence, the daily said.
Meanwhile, member of Parliament Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe wrote to Sirisena demanding that Fernando and Jayasundara be arrested. Rajapakshe said the two officials are guilty of not passing along details received from intelligence of a security threat, to Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, News First reported.
The Sri Lankan Police has released names and photographs of six suspects wanted in connection with the bombings. The police have appealed to the people to provide information on the suspects to the Criminal Investigation Department.
Sri Lankan authorities intensified their raids with assistance from the Army and arrested 16 more suspects. Sirisena said 139 people have been identified as suspects so far.
A curfew will be in place across the island from 10 pm on Thursday till 4 am on Friday.
Sri Lanka suspended plans to grant visas on arrival to citizens of 39 countries, earlier in the day. Last month, the island country had announced the plan for European Union members, Australia and the United States, during the low season from May 1. The scheme did not include China and India.
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