Defense Secretary, Major General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne on August 14, emphasising that national security and defense were paramount for country’s development vowed not to leave any room for separatism or extremism in the country again, reports Colombo Page. He expressed these views addressing a gathering of professionals at a session themed ‘Post COVID-19 Renaissance – Present and future development of Sri Lanka’, organised by the ‘Harimaga organisation’ at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. “Though separatism was militarily defeated in May 2009, we need to eliminate the separatist ideology which a few individuals of the Tamil diaspora are constantly sponsoring. I assure you that there will be no room for separatism in this country now and ever,” Gunaratne said. He said 12,242 ex-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres were rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society during the post war period and that some remnant front organisations of the LTTE were still attempting to indoctrinate and recruit these individuals to fuel their separatist cause for financial gains. Referring to the Easter Sunday bomb attacks of 2019, the Defense Secretary said despite receiving early warnings of the impending attacks 97 times by the security agencies, those who were responsible had overlooked its graveness and severity and failed to prevent the carnage that left over 290 casualties and approximately 500 injured. “Our military intelligence operatives were imprisoned and harassed leaving a huge dearth in our intelligence apparatus which also paved the path for the extremists to operate scout free and under the radar,” he said.