At a funeral for one of the victims of Sri Lanka's Easter Sunday bombings, a grief-stricken relative wailed and shouted: “We need Gota, We need Gota.”
She was referring to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the wartime defence chief who played a leading role in crushing Tamil rebels in a bloody civil war which ended 10 years ago. Sri Lanka's minority Tamils loathe Mr Rajapaksa but he's celebrated as a hero by many in the majority Sinhalese population, particularly hardliners.
Mr Rajapaksa served as defence secretary from 2005 to 2015, when his brother Mahinda was president. But his tenure was marred by allegations of crimes against humanity, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Amid the chaos and confusion that followed the suicide attacks in April this year, many Sri Lankans said a perceived strongman like Gotabhaya Rajapaksa could stamp out Islamist extremism in the country.
Mr Rajapaksa spoke to the BBC from his home in Colombo in the wake of the attacks. “During our time we gave top priority to national security,” he said. “This government did not do that. They have dismantled certain security measures we took during our time.”
Intelligence failures have been cited as one of the main reasons the Easter bombings – claimed by Islamic State militants – were not prevented.
Mr Rajapaksa said that during his tenure he set up a special military intelligence cell to monitor…
