Sri Lanka lifts ban on flying drones which were imposed after 2019 Easter terror attacks

Authorities in Sri Lanka have recently quashed a ban on drones that was imposed after the 2019 Easter bombings that claimed the lives of 263 people. According to reports, lifting of the ban comes amid increasing demands for flying drones by wedding photographers and videographers, foreign nationals, media establishments, and commercial advertising companies.

Restricted flying in certain zones

The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry on January 18 said that the flying of drones would be restricted in certain flying zones. The Ministry also added that civil drone operators will have to take prior approval from the Defence Ministry to fly drones. The ban was lifted on the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

According to reports, the ban on flying drones was imposed in May 2019. The ban came one month after seven suicide bombers blew themselves at three different churches and three luxury hotels in what was termed as the deadliest violence by Islamic State group affiliated extremists in the Southern part of Asia.

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Country's top spy chief held responsible

A Sri Lankan Parliamentary Committee held the country’s Spy Chief primarily responsible for the intelligence failure in its report on Easter suicide bombing in April 2019. The findings of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) pointed to multiple levels of failures which led to the deaths of 259 people in the attacks.

The committee, in the report released on October 24, said that the Chief of State Intelligence Service (SIS), Nilantha Jayawardena, was slow in sharing the information with other agencies. The committee noted that attacks could have been prevented if the matter was discussed in a meeting held on April 9. It also held the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the then Minister of Defence (MoD) responsible for not following up on 'whether the President and the Prime Minister were informed of the intelligence received'.

“This failure by the SIS has resulted in hundreds of deaths, many more injured and immeasurable devastation to Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans and that must not be treated lightly,” the report read.

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The report also lamented the increasing politicisation of the security and intelligence sector. It said that the secretary of the Ministry of Defence, the highest civilian individual in the security apparatus, should have been in regular contact with the President and able to communicate with the Prime Minister in case the President was unavailable.

“Since the constitutional crisis of 2018, the access by the Secretary, MOD to the President was limited. Testimony indicates that the President had regular contact with the Director, SIS than the Secretary, MOD,” said the cross-party committee.

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(With inputs from Agencies)