Former Sri Lankan president denies that suicide bombings were staged to enable his election

By KRISHAN FRANCIS
Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has denied allegations in a British television program that Islamic State-inspired extremists were used to carry out suicide bomb attacks in 2019 to create insecurity in the country and help him win election later that year. He says the documentary on Britain’s Channel 4 television was “mostly an anti-Rajapaksa tirade.” In the program broadcast Tuesday, Channel 4 interviewed a man who said he arranged a meeting between a local Islamic State-inspired extremist group and a top state intelligence official loyal to Rajapaksa to create instability and enable him to win the presidential election. Rajapaksa, a former senior defense official, was seen as a strong law-and-order candidate.