Another minor explosion reported in Colombo

April 22nd, 2019

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, April 22 (newsin.asia) – Another minor explosion was reported from Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo a short while ago when the bomb disposal squad tried to detonate a bomb which was found inside an abandoned vehicle.

The vehicle had been parked close to the church in Kochikade where a massive bomb exploded on Sunday causing many casualties.So far no injuries have been reported.

Meanwhile, the police also discovered 87 low explosives detonators at Colombo’s main bus stations in Pettah during special search operations. Police said that the explosives had been left abandoned.

Lankan President appoints three-man panel to look into blasts

April 22nd, 2019

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, April 22 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday appointed a three-man committee to go into Easter Sunday’s multiple blasts in Colombo, Negombo, and Batticaloa, and report back to him in two weeks’ time.

The members of the committee include Sri Lankan Supreme Court justice Vijith Malalgoda, form Inspector General of police N.k.Illangakoon.

The blasts in eight places took the lives of 290 persons, including, 36 foreign nationals, and left 500 injured.

The junior Minister of Defense Ruwan Wikewardene said that 24 persons have been arrested so far for questioning.

The police have a curfew from 8 pm on Monday to 4 am on Tuesday.

වනාතවිල්ලුව ප්‍රදේශයෙන් සොයා ගත් කිලෝ 100 ක පුපුරණ ද්‍රව්‍ය සහ ඩෙටනේටර් ආදී ආයුධ පරිහරණය කල මාවනැල්ලේ බුදු පිලිම කැඩූ මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදී කල්ලිය සම්බන්ධ පරීක්ෂණ වලට සිදුවුනේ කුමක්ද?

April 22nd, 2019

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2019 වසර මුලදී වනාතවිල්ලුව ප්‍රදේශයෙන් සොයා ගත් කිලෝ 100 ක පුපුරණ ද්‍රව්‍ය සහ ඩෙටනේටර් ආදී ආයුධ පරිහරණය කල මාවනැල්ලේ බුදු පිලිම කැඩූ මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදී කල්ලිය සම්බන්ධ පරීක්ෂණ වලට සිදුවුනේ කුමක්දැයි මා ඇතුලු රටේ ජනතාව හරි හැටි නොදන්නවා විය හැක..සමහර විට රටේ ජනතාව එවැනි සිදුවීමක් ගැන නොදන්නවාද විය හැක.

අද සිදුවූ අවාසනාවන්ත සිදුවීම් මාලාවට එම සිද්ධි දාමයේ අනිවාර්ය සම්බන්ධයක් තිබිය හැක. “ජනතාව කුපිත වීම වැලැක්වීම” යන සුප්‍රසිද්ධ “රහස් වලලා දැමීමේ න්‍යායට” අනුව ක්‍රියාකිරීමෙන් තව දුරටත් මේ රටේ ආරක්ෂාව සහ නිරායුධ ජනතාව අනතුරක හෙලීම නොකල යුතුය.

ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ වියරු ත්‍රස්තවාදය ආරම්භ වූ සමයේ එය නියපොත්තෙන් කැඩීම අතපසු කරමින් වසර තිස් ගණනක් රට අමුසොහොනක් කල ලේ ගලා ගිය අතීතයෙන් පාඩම් උගෙන, අද බිහිසුනු මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදී කණ්ඩායම් රට ගිලගන්නට සැරසෙන මේ පලමු අවස්ථාවේදීම එම අන්තවාදී කණ්ඩායම් ලක්පොලොවෙන් අතුගා දැමීමට රටේ ජීවත් වෙන සිංහල,දෙමල,මුස්ලිම්,බෞද්ධ,හින්දු,
කතෝලික ජනතාව පාලනය කරන පාලකයන් වහාම ක්‍රියාත්මක විය යුතුය..

එදා ප්‍රභාකරන්ලාගේ ත්‍රස්තවාදී බීජය අවස්ථාවාදී දෙමල දේශපාලකයන් විසින් ආරක්ෂා කල ආකාරයටම අද බිහිවෙන ඉස්ලාම් ත්‍රස්තවාදී බීජය අවස්ථාවාදී මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලකයන් එලිපිටම ආරක්ෂා කිරීම වහාම නවතා රටේ සමස්ත ජනතාවගේත් මතු පරපුරේත් ජීවිත සුරක්ෂිත කල යුතුය..

– මාලින්ද ඩයස්

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් සහ අමාත්‍යවරුන් වන මංගල සමරවීර සහ රාජිත සේනාරත්න බුද්ධි අංශ සහ ආරක්ෂක අංශ දුර්වල කරමින්, සහජීවනයේ නාමයෙන් මෙම ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට නිදහසේ කටයුතු කිරීමට පරිසරය සැකසුවේය.

April 22nd, 2019

FB Ishan Jayasooriya

පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයට සම්බන්ධ වූ මරාගෙන මැරෙන බෝම්බකරුවෙක් මින් පෙර මාවනැල්ල සිදුවීමේදි අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන පසුව දේශපාලන බලපෑම් නිසා නිදහස් කළ පුද්ගලයෙකි.

ඔහු නිදහස් කිරීමට බලපෑම් කර ඇත්තේ ජනපති මෛත්‍රීගේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී එම්. එල්. ඒ. එම් හිස්බුල්ලා ය.

දෙමටගොඩ ප්‍රහාරය එල්ල කිරීමට පහසුකම් සැපයූ කෝටිපති ව්‍යාපාරික මොහොමඩ් ඊබ්‍රහීම් මැද කොළඹ ප්‍රබල එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ ආධාරකරුවෙකි. 2015 මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය පරාජය කිරීමට දැඩි ලෙස කැපවූ අයෙකි.

ඔහු ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ සමග ඉතා සමීපව දේශපාලනය කළ අතර ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ ජාතික ලයිස්තුවේ ස්ථානයක් පවා ලබා දීමට මොහොමඩ් ඊබ්‍රහීම් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ ප්‍රබල ආධාරකරුවෙක් විය. ජවිපෙට සෑම මැතිවරණ ව්‍යාපාරයකටම කෝටි ගණනක මුදල් ආධාර ඊබ්‍රහීම්ගෙන් හිමිව තිබේ. ඒ සදහා ජවිපෙ කෘතගුණ දක්වා ඇත්තේ ඊබ්‍රහීම්ලාගේ අන්තවාදය සගවා සිංහලයන්ට චෝදනා කරමිනි.

ඊබ්‍රහීම් හොදම ව්‍යාපාරිකයෙකු ලෙස වර්තමාන රජයෙන් සම්මාන පවා දිනා ගත්තෙකි. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රීක් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මුජිබර් රහුමාන්, සුජීව සේනසිංහ හා අමාත්‍ය රිෂාද් බදියුදීන් ඊබ්‍රහීම්ගේ සමීපතම මිතුරන් ය.

මේ වනවිටත් කොළඹ නගරය පුරාවටම පුපුරණ ද්‍රව්‍ය සොයා ගනිමින් තිබේ. මේ සියල්ල තවුහීද් ජමාද් සංවිධානය නිදහසේ කොළඹට ගෙනැවිත් ස්ථානගත කළ ඒවාය. කොළඹ ත්‍රස්ත ක්‍රියා සදහා දේශපාලන අනුග්‍රහය හිමි වූයේ මුජිබර් රහුමාන්ගෙනි.

තවුහීද් ජමාද් මූලස්ථානය පැවතියේ කාත්තන්කුඩු ප්‍රදේශයේය. ඒ සදහා ආරක්ෂාව සහ අනුග්‍රහය හිමි වූයේ ජනපති මෛත්‍රීගේ පක්ෂය හා අගමැති රනිල්ගේ පක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරනා බදියුදීන් සහ හිස්බුල්ලාගෙනි.

අයිසීස් ත්‍රස්ත සංවිධානයේ ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ශාඛාව වන තවුහීද් ජමාද් සංවිධානයට දේශපාලන ආරක්ෂාව ලබා දුන්නේ රිෂාඩ් බදියුදීන්, හිස්බුල්ලා, අබ්දුල් කාසීම් සහ මුජිබර් රහුමාන් යන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ය.

අනෙක් පසට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් සහ අමාත්‍යවරුන් වන මංගල සමරවීර සහ රාජිත සේනාරත්න බුද්ධි අංශ සහ ආරක්ෂක අංශ දුර්වල කරමින්, සහජීවනයේ නාමයෙන් මෙම ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට නිදහසේ කටයුතු කිරීමට පරිසරය සැකසුවේය. ඔවුන් නිරතුරුව සිංහල ජනතාව දෙස සැකයෙන් බලමින් ඔවුන් පීඩනයට ලක් කළ අතර සැබෑ අන්තවාදයට ප්‍රබල ආරක්ෂාවක් ලබා දී එය සහජීවනය යැයි කීවේය.

මේ වනවිට අත්අඩංගුවේ පසුවන ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් පවා දේශපාලන බලපෑම් හමුවේ නිදහස් වූවද පුදුම විය යුතු නැත. වත්මන් රජය එතරම් ත්‍රස්ත හිතවාදී ආණ්ඩුවකි.

Ishan Jayasooriya

Did ISIS help plot the carnage? With suicide vests, Christians targeted on a religious holiday and a brutal contempt for civilian lives, the Sri Lankan bombings bear all the hallmarks of the terror group

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy Mail online

  • 207 people died, including five Britons, and 450 were injured in Sri Lankan blasts
  • 13 suspects were arrested but no nation or group has claimed responsibility
  • The attack bears the hallmarks of IS: explicitly targeting civilians, designed to cause maximum terror and bloodshed, and perpetrated on a Christian holiday 

By LARISSA BROWN, DEFENCE AND SECURITY EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL

After living through a bloody civil war that dragged on for three decades, the people of Sri Lanka are no strangers to terror.

But the carnage that unfolded yesterday saw the country’s enemies take on new depths of depravity.

It had all the hallmarks of the barbaric Islamic State group – executed meticulously and without mercy.

Within minutes of yesterday’s blasts, MI5 was trying to establish if there were any British links to those who could be behind the plot. There were no immediate claims of responsibility, nor any established motive for the attack, although 13 suspects had been arrested by last night.

Early evidence pointed to the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), a relatively unknown radical Islamist group said to have formed in Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated town in eastern Sri Lanka, in 2014. 

Alex and Anita Nicholson photographed in London in 2015. Both were killed in the bomb blast in the Shangri-La hotel

Alex and Anita Nicholson photographed in London in 2015. Both were killed in the bomb blast in the Shangri-La hotel  

Last photo: Shantha Mayadunne (second left) and her daughter Nisanga (right) were among the victims of the Sri Lanka bomb attacks on Sunday. The family posted this picture of their Easter breakfast at the Shangri-La hotel just before the blast there

Last photo: Shantha Mayadunne (second left) and her daughter Nisanga (right) were among the victims of the Sri Lanka bomb attacks on Sunday. The family posted this picture of their Easter breakfast at the Shangri-La hotel just before the blast there

A map showing where the eight blasts went off today, six of them in very quick succession on Easter Sunday morning

A map showing where the eight blasts went off today, six of them in very quick succession on Easter Sunday morning  

ISIS militants marching in Raqqa, Syria, in 2014. This year the fundamentalists were driven from the last land they occupied but security experts have warned of 'pop up' terror cells

ISIS militants marching in Raqqa, Syria, in 2014. This year the fundamentalists were driven from the last land they occupied but security experts have warned of ‘pop up’ terror cells

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It has no history of mass fatality attacks.

In fact, its only mention appears to be last year when it was linked to the vandalism of Buddhist statues.

Sources in the Muslim community in Sri Lanka claim the group has publicly supported Islamic State. They also say that Zahran Hashim, named in reports as one of the bombers, was its founder.

Although intelligence files on the group are small, there is no doubt the warning signs were there.

On April 11, Sri Lankan police circulated a document entitled ‘Information of an alleged plan attack’ which said they had been warned by an unnamed foreign intelligence agency that the NTJ was plotting suicide attacks on churches in Colombo.

It added that intelligence pointed to any of the following methods: suicide attack, weapon attack or truck attack.

The original warning is most likely to have come from Australia – one of the ‘five eyes’ with a close intelligence-sharing relationship with Britain – that has kept watch on the rise of extremism in the region.

Documents show that Sri Lanka’s police chief Pujuth Jayasundara then issued an intelligence alert to top officers, specifically warning that suicide bombers planned to hit ‘prominent churches’.

Sri Lanka's defence ministry has now ordered curfew with immediate effect 'until further notice', and the Sri Lankan government said it had shut down access to social media messaging services, sources say

 Sri Lanka’s defence ministry has now ordered curfew with immediate effect ‘until further notice’, and the Sri Lankan government said it had shut down access to social media messaging services, sources say

Hospital staff push a trolley with a casualty after an explosion at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

Hospital staff push a trolley with a casualty after an explosion at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

A crime scene official inspects the site of a bomb blast inside a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, which lost half its roof tiles with the force of the blast

A crime scene official inspects the site of a bomb blast inside a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, which lost half its roof tiles with the force of the blast

Documents even named six individuals as likely suicide bombers, including Hashim. Yesterday, the seemingly far-fetched plan became frighteningly real.

Why the police did not sound the alarm earlier will remain a mystery. Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that information about the attacks had been received in advance but denied having direct knowledge himself. ‘We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken. Neither I nor the ministers were kept informed,’ he said following intense anger in the community.

Whichever group was behind yesterday’s attack, it was most certainly inspired by the tactics used by IS. The suicide bombings explicitly targeted civilians, designed to create maximum terror for maximum effect – like the Manchester Arena bombings and the London Bridge attack.

They also chose iconic locations packed full of people, including many foreigners.

IS – which lost its final sliver of territory in Syria just weeks ago – also has a history of staging attacks against Christians on holy days, notably Christmas and Easter.

British military chiefs and ministers have long warned that the defeat of the terror group in the Middle East does not mean it has been vanquished.

They have referred to a ‘pop-up’ IS involving the group emerging elsewhere, often in states where they can exploit a vacuum. They have specifically warned of the rising threat from such diehard jihadis in south-east Asia.

IS fostered a brand which was so effective other terror groups wanted to be associated with it.

Some radicalised Muslims travelled from Sri Lanka to Syria to fight in that country’s civil war.

In 2016, the justice minister said 32 Sri Lankan Muslims from ‘well-educated and elite’ families had joined IS in Syria.

The recent loss of its last territory makes it even more likely that foreign fighters from countries such as Sri Lanka may now be returning home.

Terrorism expert Raffaello Pantucci says the demise of the group’s ‘caliphate’ could have persuaded extremists to stay in their countries and mount attacks there instead. ‘Think how big Islamic State’s footprint is,’ he said. ‘This means it has a reverse effect as well – their ideas are going out to a big pool of places.’

Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa,with police tape keeping out bysanders

Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa,with police tape keeping out bysanders

Security forces inspect the St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo

Security forces inspect the St. Anthony’s Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade in Colombo

State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators have identified the culprits behind the 'terrorist' attacks (pictuerd: Shangri La hotel, Colombo)

State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators have identified the culprits behind the ‘terrorist’ attacks (pictuerd: Shangri La hotel, Colombo)

Yesterday’s bombings end a decade of relative peace in Sri Lanka following the end of its civil war in 2009. Terrorist bombings were common during the brutal 25-year struggle during which the Sri Lankan government fought Tamil separatism.

But despite the period of calm, much bitterness and grievance has remained in the country, riven by ethnic disputes.

Sri Lanka, which is mainly Buddhist, does not have a recent history of persecution of its Christian minority, which comprises 7 per cent of the population.

Yet its relations with others, including Hindus and Muslims, have not always been easy. Over the years there has been an increasing rise of discontent among Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, which make up 10 per cent of the population.

In November 1990, many were expelled from their homes in the north and have since been living as ‘displaced’ in the southern part of the country, under the patronage of the state.

Whatever the motives behind yesterday’s attack, there is little doubt that the brutal tactics used by Islamic State will continue to inspire others.

SRI LANKA TERRORISM HAS HALLMARKS OF PREVIOUS ATTACKS

April 21st, 2019

BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN Courtesy The Jerusalem Post

When it comes to mass murder and coordinated terror attacks, we have a long list of experiences to compare.

coordinated series of attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday conjures up memories of previous terrorist attacks. Striking at worshipers at prayer reminds us of the Christchurch Mosque shootings in New Zealand on March 15. It also appears linked to previous Easter attacks, including the 2017 Palm Sunday assault in Egypt in 2017 in which 45 people were murdered, and the terrorist attack in Lahore in 2016 that killed 75. In coordination and the number of sites chosen it is also similar to the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166.

It is a hallmark of our era that when it comes to mass murder and coordinated terrorist attacks we have a long list of past experiences to choose from. In the last decades the growing number of terrorist attacks by far-right Islamist extremists, white nationalists and others has become an almost daily event. Last week gunmen, allegedly terrorists from Iran, murdered 14 people in western Pakistan in an attack on Pakistani security forces. Earlier in April, a bombing attack – not widely reported outside Pakistan and thought to be carried out by the Islamic State – targeted Shi’ites in Quetta. And on Friday there was an attack made on government institutions in Kabul. On Sunday, after the attacks in Sri Lanka, terrorist incidents were also reported in Mali, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, showing the global reach of extremist organizations, many of them linked to ISIS.Read More Related Articles

Recommended byNot all attacks are the same. The ones in Pakistan and Afghanistan specifically struck at the military and government. The one in Quetta targeted minorities. But there are methods that are similar, and there are networks of groups which learn from each other, specifically ISIS and its affiliates. ISIS has built upon decades of experience gained from al-Qaeda, and other groups that have perfected their methods.
The full picture of the Sri Lankan attacks was still becoming clear on Sunday afternoon as Sri Lanka imposed a curfew and police launched raids searching for perpetrators. Pakistan’s spokesman for its Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement in the afternoon condemning the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.” Pakistan says it stands with Sri Lanka. Iran’s Javad Zarif also condemned the attacks as terror, noting that terrorism has no religion. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the cowardly attacks.” Seven were reported detained.

Sri Lanka has a long history fighting terrorism. It was generally fighting against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist movement that was largely defeated in 2009. The Tamil fighters were rooted in the Tamil Hindu minority of the Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka. Christians make up only around 8% of the country, and Muslims an additional 12%. In 2016, Sri Lanka revealed that 32 Sri Lankans had joined ISIS and left the country. Many were said to be from educated families, something that surprised authorities. The local Muslim community condemned the government’s statements as tarnishing the image” of Sri Lankan Muslims. An Australian member of ISIS was similarly shown to have a respected uncle back home in Sri Lanka. Other reports indicated ISIS members in India had connections to Sri Lanka, and there were concerns after the defeat of ISIS about returnees from the terrorist group. This appears similar to the extremism in Bangladesh before the 2016 Dhaka attack that was carried out by educated ISIS members who targeted foreigners in a café.

While Easter attacks are carried out by Islamist extremist groups, including the ones in Pakistan and Egypt already mentioned, and an attack in Iraq in 2011, the complex and coordinated nature of the attack in Sri Lanka looks more like those in Mumbai in 2008. In that year, 12 coordinated bombings and shooting attacks were perpetrated across Mumbai, including at a café, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the Oberoi Trident Hotel, and at the local Chabad house. That attack was coordinated by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan. Unlike the bombings in Sri Lanka, the attack was carried out by gunmen.

The attacks in Sri Lanka struck three churches: St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo and Batticaloa’s Zion Church, according to Pakistan’s The Dawn newspaper. Police initially estimated that only 20 were killed but soon revised that number to 137, with 45 murdered in Colombo, 25 in Batticaloa, and 67 in Negombo. By nightfall the death toll exceeded 200 and two smaller attacks had taken place, including a suicide bomber who reportedly killed three police. Three major hotels were struck in Colombo, all of them in a line along a major road that links several important central districts of the city. These included the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury.

Sri Lankan Police Chief Pujuth Jayasundara had reportedly warned in April about a threat of attacks targeting churches and the Indian High Commission office, near the hotels that were targeted. In his security notice he had pointed to a local Islamic group. But it isn’t entirely clear if the police chief was convinced there was a threat, as security did not appear to be increased before Easter, the most high-profile holiday to follow.

After the attack in New Zealand, there has been heightened awareness of the threat of attacks on religious institutions and people at prayer. The outpouring of support in the wake of the Christchurch massacre is a lesson for Sri Lanka about the kind of support it will now need. If the death toll is as high as initial reports indicate, this attack will be one of the worst of its kind in recent memory. But these kinds of attacks have become more normal in recent years. Governments have not found a way to prevent them, even with the latest technology and intelligence sharing.

National Thowheeth Jama’ath’s hand in Sri Lankan blasts suspected

April 21st, 2019

NEENA GOPAL Courtesy The Deccan Chronicle

Six members of the NTJ were reportedly arrested when police homed in on one of their hideouts in the city.

A view of St. Sebastian’s Church damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday. (Photo: AFP)

 A view of St. Sebastian’s Church damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday. (Photo: AFP)

Bengaluru: Hours after the first six bombs tore through some of the Sri Lankan capital’s most revered Christian shrines, followed by two more, shattering a decade-long hiatus from a 30-year-long bloody campaign by the separatist Tamil Tigers, the island nation may be facing a fresh and far more virulent threat posed by a radical Muslim group in the form of the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ).

Six members of the NTJ were reportedly arrested when police homed in on one of their hideouts in the city.

A warning by Indian intelligence that the NTJ, a virulently anti-Buddhist group that was linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues would target churches in Colombo as well as the Indian High Commission and possibly, an Indian owned hotel, the Taj Samudra, only minutes away from the Cinnamon Grand and the Shangri-La hotels — both of which were attacked — had been sent to the Sri Lankan authorities on April 7.

A letter, seen by Deccan Chronicle, from the Sri Lankan police chief, Pujuth Jayasundara, dated April 11, to his police officers, in which he sends out a nation-wide alert and clearly states that suicide bombers planned to blow up ‘prominent churches’ and the Indian High commission, remained unheeded. One of the two suicide missions targeted the Cinnamon Grand on Sunday.

The letter sent on April 11 warning of a terror attack.

The letter sent on April 11 warning of a terror attack.

The government of President Maithripala Sirisena which is run by his arch-rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that they had been informed of the alert, but only after the Sri Lankan capital faced an attack that is now being compared in scale, to 9/11. Mr Wickremesinghe said he did not know why he wasn’t informed of the threat. High level diplomats in Sri Lankan missions told DC they had no knowledge of the alert.

In January, Sri Lankan police seized a haul of explosives and detonators stashed near a wildlife sanctuary following the arrest of four men from NTJ, the newly-formed radical Muslim group.

The Muslim community in Sri Lanka has been largely peaceful, distancing itself from the Tamil separatists, among whom were a number of Christians.

Tensions between the Buddhist and Muslim community boiled over in 2014, when riots broke in Kalutara, after the Bodhu Bala Sena, a Buddhist group incited a rampage against Muslims, and a blanket ban was imposed on reporting the incidents.

Intelligence sources however said Sunday’s Easter Day bombings may have been the NTJ’s payback for the Christchurch massacre. Some reports suggest that IS, which has no presence in Sri Lanka but does operate in the Maldives, saw the Easter Sunday congregations as the perfect target to level scores.

Anti-Buddhist NTJ behind attack?

April 21st, 2019

NEENA GOPAL THE ASIAN AGE. 

Warning by Indian intelligence sent on April 7 went unheeded.

Sri Lankan firefighters stand in the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (Photo: AP)

 Sri Lankan firefighters stand in the area around St. Anthony’s Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (Photo: AP)

Bengaluru: Hours after the first six bombs tore through some of the Sri Lankan capital’s most revered Christian shrines, followed by two more, shattering a 10-year hiatus from a 30-year-long bloody campaign by the Tamil Tigers, the island nation may be facing a fresh and far more virulent threat posed by a radical Muslim group in the form of the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ). Six members of the NTJ were reportedly arrested when the police homed in one of their hideouts in the city.

A warning by Indian intelligence that NTJ, a virulently anti-Buddhist group that was linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues, would target churches in Colombo as well as the Indian high commission and possibly the Indian-owned Taj Samudra hotel, only minutes away from the Cinnamon Grand and ShangriLa hotels — both of which were attacked — was sent to the Sri Lankan authorities on April 7.

A letter, seen by this newspaper, from Sri Lankan police chief Pujuth Jayasundara, dated April 11, to his officers, in which he sends out a nationwide alert and clearly states that suicide bombers planned to blow up prominent churches” and the Indian high commission, remained unheeded. One of the two suicide missions targeted the Cinnamon Grand on Sunday morning.

The government of President Maithripala Sirisena which is run by his arch-rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that they had been informed of the alert, but only after the Sri Lankan capital faced an attack that is now being compared in scale to 9/11. Mr Wickremesinghe said he did not know why he wasn’t informed of the threat. High-level diplomats in Sri Lankan missions told this newspaper that they had no knowledge of the alert.

However, in January, the Sri Lankan police seized a haul of explosives and detonators stashed near a wildlife sanctuary following the arrest of four men from NTJ, the newly-formed radical Muslim group.

The Muslim community in Sri Lanka has been largely peaceful, distancing itself from the Tamil separatists, among whom were a number of Christians. Tensions between the Buddhist and Muslims had boiled over in 2014, when riots broke in Kalutara, after the Bodhu Bala Sena, a Buddhist group, incited a rampage against Muslims, and a blanket ban was imposed on reporting the incidents.

Intelligence sources, however, said Sunday’s Easter Day bombings may have been the NTJ’s payback for the Christchurch massacre. Some reports suggest that ISIS, which has no presence in Sri Lanka, but does operate in the Maldives, saw the Easter Sunday congregations as the perfect target to level scores.

FINANCIAL EXPLOITERS

April 21st, 2019

ALI SUKHANVER

CPEC has become a pain in the neck of the forces hostile to Pakistan. They know it very well that CPEC is a life-line of Pakistan and after completion this project is going to give Pakistan a new economic boost. This project would certainly liberate Pakistan from the economic exploitation of the institutions like IMF which are simply like tools in the hands of US. Recently it was reported in media that IMF is pressuring Pakistan to either slow down work on the CPEC or come out of it. Coming out of the CPEC or slowing it down means spoiling China’s wonderful contribution to Pakistan’s future. IMF has asked the government to make the revenue target of Rs5400 billion for the next budgetary year. Commenting on IMF’s terms and conditions Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan, a renowned economist said that GDP growth numbers worked out by the IFIs such as 3.9 percent by the ADB, 3.4 percent by the World Bank and 2.7 percent by the IMF served nothing but to push Pakistan to the Fund on strict terms.  He said by these figures one can easily make it out, on the one side, the Fund is predicting the lowest GDP growth, on the other side it is asking for 40 percent growth in revenue. The contradictions clearly show the world powers are blackmailing Pakistan with IMF bailout package. In short the international hostile forces are pushing Pakistan to an alley of economic exploitation.

Another example of economic exploitation of the counties like Pakistan is the Grey List prepared by FATF. The abbreviation FATF stands for Financial Action Task Force. Since 2000, the FATF is issuing a black list consisting of the names of the countries which it judges to be non-cooperative in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. Such countries are given the name of Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories. In short FATF’s grey list includes countries that are not doing enough to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. This list keeps on changing with the passage of time and the names of those countries are struck off which take serious action in the light of guidelines provided by FATF. Pakistan’s name had been in the grey-list for three years, i.e., from 2012 to 2015. Later on, the Task Force recognized Pakistan’s efforts and removed its name from the grey list in 2015. Unfortunately in spite of Pakistan’s all successful efforts against the money-launderers and terrorist financers, once again Pakistan’s name was included in FATF’s grey-list. Experts say that this inclusion was a result of conspiracy of the forces hostile to Pakistan’s progress, peace and prosperity. On top of the list of such countries were USA and India. These two countries spent a lot of resources on lobbying against Pakistan in shape of a well planned media war. By defaming and blaming the religious parties and their leaders; by fixing and framing sometimes Hafiz Saeed and sometimes Molana Masood Azhar, these countries did all their best to achieve their objective and ultimately succeeded in dragging back Pakistan’s name in FATF’s grey list somewhere in mid of June 2018. But Pakistan did not lose heart and kept on bringing the things back into the order desired by FATF. The Khaleej Times has recently reported that Pakistan is going to be excluded from   FATF’s grey list by September 2019.

Now it is in the news that FATF team is satisfied with Pakistan’s overall efforts and action plan to fight the menace of money laundering and terror-financing. Certainly the present government of Pakistan is doing all its best for the financial stability of the country by keeping a strict eye on all those who are providing a chance to the forces hostile to defame Pakistan by getting involved in financial malpractices.  The determination of our government in this matter is really admirably commendable. If Pakistan’s name is excluded from the grey-list, it would save Pakistan from an annual loss of approximately $10 billion. To keep the country safe from the ‘grey-list conspiracy’ in future the government of Pakistan has tightened the security along Pak-Afghan and Pak-Iran borders and certainly the Line of Control is also being observed and guarded very strictly as international watch-dogs consider these routs as the ‘ key routes’ for money laundering and terror-financing. It is really a hard luck for Pakistan that its neighbouring countries never miss a chance of joining hands with the forces hostile to Pakistan but in spite of all these facts we the Pakistanis have a lot of courage to face and defeat all such conspiracies.

ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය ඉතිහාසයතුල අඳුරුතම දිනයක්

April 21st, 2019

ජාතික විද්වත් සංවිධානය

ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය ඉතිහාසයතුල අඳුරුතම දිනයක් සනිටුහන් කරමින් 2019 අප්‍රේල් 21 වන පාස්කු ඉරු දින කොච්චිකඩේ සාන්ත අන්තෝනි, මීගමුව කටුවාපිටිය ශාන්ත සෙබස්තියන්  මඩකලපුව සියොන් යන දේවස්ථාන තුන ඇතුලු ස්ථාන හයක  සිදුවූ බෝම්බ පිපිරවීම  බෞද්ධ, කතෝලික, හින්දු හා මුස්ලිම් ඇතුලු සියලු ආගම් නියෝජනය ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය ජනතාව අතිශය සංවේගයට සහ  ලජ්ජාවට පත් කල සිදුවීම් ලෙස හෙලා දකින ජාතික විද්වත් සංවිධානය පොදුවේ ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය ජනතාවටත් විශේෂයෙන් සිද්ධිය නිසා මියගිය හා තුවාල ලැබූ අයගේ පවුල් වල සාමාජිකයින් ඇතුලු කතෝලික ප්‍රජාව වෙත සිය කණගාටුව ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටී.

ආගමික හෝ දේශපාලන ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වය විසින් කිසිම ප්‍රජාවකට අත්කරදෙන කුමන හො ජග්‍රහනයන් නොමැති බව තරයේ අවධාරණය ජාතික විද්වත් සංවිධානය  මෙම සංවේදී මොහොතේ වගකීමෙන් හා සාමකාමීව කටයුතු කරන ලෙස සියලු පුරවැසින්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටී එසේම මෙම අවාසනවන්ත මොහොත සිය පටු දේශපාලන අභිමතාර්ථයන් ඉටු කරගැනීම ස‍ඳහා අවස්ථාවාදී ලෙස ප්‍රායෝජනයට නෙගන්නා ලෙස සියලු දේශපාලන කණ්ඩායම් වලින් ඉල්ලා සිටීමට කැමැත්තෙමු ආගමික සහ ජාතිකත්වයන් අතර සහජීවනයටත් ලෝක ප්‍රජාවතුල ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය නාමයටත් ඛේදනීය අනතුරක් සිදුව ඇති මේ මොහොතේ අපට අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ වගකීම් සහගත ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම් ප්‍රකාශ සහ තොරතුරු හැර මහජනතාව නොමග යවන හෝ ප්‍රකෝපයට පත්කරන අවස්ථාවදය නොවේ.

පුරවැසියන් ගේ ආරක්ෂාවත් නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යයත් තහවුරු කරන ලෙස අදාල බලධාරීන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටින ජාතික විද්වත් සංවිධානය සාමකාමීව සහ වගකීමෙන් යුතුව කටයුතු කරන ලෙස ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටී.

පුරවැසි වගකීම ඉටුකිරීමට ජනතාව පෙරට ආ යුතුයි.

April 21st, 2019

පූජ්‍ය වකමුල්ලේ උදිත හිමි ලේකම්  ජාතික භික්‍ෂු පෙරමුණ.

අද උදෑසන සිට තැනින් තැන සිදුවන හදිසි පිපිරීම් නිසා මුළු රටම මේ වන විට දැඩි නොසන්සුන්කාරී තත්වයකට පත්ව ඇත. මේ දක්වාම රජය මගින් මෙම සිදුවීම් දාමය පිළිබඳව නිවැරදි ප‍්‍රකාශයක් කර නැත. එම නිසාම මෙහි ව්‍යාකූලත්වය තවත් බරපතල වී තිබේ. ප‍්‍රහාරයන්ගෙන් ජීවිතක්‍ෂයට පත්වී සිටින සිංහල, දෙමළ, මුස්ළිම්, බර්ගර්, මැලේ ශී‍්‍ර ලාංකීය හා විදේශීය සියලූ දෙනා වෙනුවෙන් ජාතික භික්‍ෂු පෙරමුණ දැඩි සංවේගය පළකර සිටින අතර මෙම ප‍්‍රහාරය දැඩිව හෙළා දකින්නෙමු. එසේම මෙම ප‍්‍රහාරයට සම්බන්ධ සැබෑ වගඋත්තරකරුවන් සොයා අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන නීතිය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමත් ආණ්ඩුවේ වගකීමක් බව අවධාරණය කරන අතර මෙම ප‍්‍රහාර මාලාවට මුවා වී විවිධ පුද්ගලයන්ට හා සංවිධානවලට එල්ල විය හැකි අභූත චෝදනා හා හිංසාකාරී ක‍්‍රියාකාරකම් වැළැක්වීම වෙනුවෙන් ආණ්ඩුව කඩිනම් වැඩපිළිවෙලක් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතුව ඇත. එසේම ජනතාවද තමන්ගේ පුරවැසි වගකීම පටු සීමාවන්ට කොටු නොවී ඉටු කිරීම සඳහා පෙරමුණ ගත යුතුව ඇති බවද අපි අවධාරණය කරන්නෙමු.

රාජ්‍ය ආරක්‍ෂාව තහවුරු කිරීම සඳහා පූර්ණ වගකීම දැරිය යුත්තේ පවතින ආණ්ඩුවයි. ඒ සඳහා විවිධ තොරතුරු සේවා සහ ආරක්‍ෂක විධිවිධාන රාශියක් ආණ්ඩු විසින් අනුගමනය කරමින් සිටී. එසේ තිබියදී හදිසියේ මෙවැනි ප‍්‍රහාර මාලාවක් සිදුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආණ්ඩුව දැඩිව අවධානය යොමුකළ යුතුව ඇත. ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව පිළිබඳව ආණ්ඩුව මීට වඩා සැලකිල්ලෙන් කටයුතු කළ යුතු බව අවධාරණය කරන අප මේ සිදුවීම හමුවේ විවිධ සංවිධාන හා පුද්ගලයන් තමන්ගේ පටු අරමුණු ඉටුකර ගැනීම සඳහා විවිධ උත්සාහයන් ගත හැකි බැවින් ඒ පිළිබඳව වඩාත් වැඩි අවධානයකින් ජනතාව සිටිය යුතු බවද අවධාරණය කිරීමට කැමැත්තෙමු. එසේම මේ මොහොතේ රට තුල සාමකාමී වාතාවරණයක් ගොඩනැගීම සඳහා මහා සංඝරත්නය මෙන්ම ක‍්‍රිස්තියානි, ඉස්ලාම් හා හින්දු ආගමික නායකත්වයට සුවිශේෂී වගකීමක් පැවරෙන බවද එකී වගකීම දැරීම සඳහා කටයුතු කළ යුතු බවද අපගේ අදහසයි.

මෙම ප‍්‍රහාර මාළාවෙන් තුවාල ලබා රෝහල් ගතව සිටින සැමට ඉක්මන් සුවය ලැබේවායි ප‍්‍රාර්ථනා කරන ජාතික භික්‍ෂු පෙරමුණ මෙම ඛේදවාචකය නිසා විපතට පත් සියලූ ජනයා සමග සමසේ දුක, වේදනාව, සංවේගය බෙදා ගැනීමට සියලූ ශී‍්‍ර ලාංකික භික්‍ෂු මහා සංඝයා නියෝජනය කරමින් ඉදිරිපත්වන බවද අවධාරනය කරන්නෙමු.

Buffet bomber: Terrorist waited in line for breakfast and then set off bomb

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy NZHerald

One of the Sri Lanka terrorist bombers checked into a five-star hotel, waited in a queue for a breakfast buffet and then blew himself up, it has emerged.

A manager at the Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo said the attacker had set off the horrific explosion in a packed restaurant at 8.30am.

The bomber had checked in under a false address, claiming he was in the city on business, before unleashing terror on one of the hotel’s busiest days of the year.

At least 207 people have died in the eight Easter Sunday blasts, including Brits, Americans and Dutch nationals.

Security forces inspect the scene after a blast targeting The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo. It was one of three hotels targetted in the co-ordinated attacks. Photo / AP
Security forces inspect the scene after a blast targeting The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo. It was one of three hotels targetted in the co-ordinated attacks. Photo / AP

The bombings targeted hotels such as the Cinnamon Grand which are popular with foreign visitors, as well as St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, also frequented by tourists.

Other blasts were reported at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority-Catholic town, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticalo.

Describing the Cinnamon Grand bombing, the manager said the attacker had registered the night before as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed.

The bomber was just about to be served when he set off the explosives which were strapped to his back, killing himself and numerous guests.

The manager said: ‘There was utter chaos. It was 8.30 am and it was busy. It was families.

“He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast. One of our managers who was welcoming guests was among those killed instantly.”

Pipe bomb detonated on road to airport

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy The Sydney Morning Herald

A pipe bomb was found near Colombo’s airport, according to officials.

The bomb was found on a road near Bandaranaike International Airport and detonated by explosives experts, Air Force spokesman Gihan Seneviratne told Bloomberg.

Three police officers were killed while searching a suspected safe house in the outskirts of Colombo in the eighth explosion on Easter Sunday. The occupants of the house reportedly detonated explosives to prevent arrest.

The explosions tore through congregations at churches in Colombo, nearby Negombo and the eastern Sri Lankan town of Batticaloa.

The hotels hit in Colombo were the Shangri-La, the Kingsbury, the Cinnamon Grand and the Tropical Inn.

Lankan President appoints commission as police make headway in blasts investigation

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, April 21 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday decided to appoint a commission to inquire into the Eastern Sunday serial blasts in Colombo and three other towns in which 228 persons, including nine foreigners, were killed and 470 injured. The media reported that the President would ask the commission to submit a report within two weeks.

Meanwhile, the police have recovered the van in which the explosives used in the carnage were carried. The van was found in Ramakrishna Road in Wellawatte in South Colombo. Its driver has been arrested. The police had earlier arrested seven persons in connection with the eight blasts in two fire-star hotels in Colombo, and churches in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.

The police have also discovered a house in Sarikkamulla, in Panadura, south of Colombo, which had been a shelter for the terrorists.

Death toll from multiple blasts in Sri Lanka rises to 228

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, April 21 (newsin.asia) – The death toll from the multiple blasts which ripped across Sri Lanka on Sunday has risen to 228 while over 450 have been injured.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) in a statement said that 32 foreigners from China, Belgium, USA, and UK were among those killed.

The police have imposed an island-wide curfew which will stay indefinitely.

State Minister of Defence, Ruwan Wijewardene called Sunday’s attacks a terrorist attack carried out by extremist groups”, and said a full investigation will be conducted to find out who was responsible for the attacks. He said 7 people have been arrested so far and the police are on the lookout for more suspects.

Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekera said the police were not able to divulge who was responsible for Sunday’s attacks till the full investigations are complete.

Four Indian nationals killed in Colombo blasts

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Kasargode, April 22 (The Hindu): Four Indian nationals were killed in the Colombo serial blasts while six others are reported to have escaped with minor injuries.

The four victims have been identified as P.S. Raseena, Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar, Ramesh.

Businessman and TDP leader Amilineni Surendrababu and five of his friends, who were on holiday inSri Lankaand staying at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, had a narrow escape as blasts hit the hotel on Sunday morning. Superintendent of Police, Anantapur, G.V.G. Ashok Kumar said the six Indians were safe, but could not be contacted.

However, Ms Raseena, from Mogral Puthur of Kasargode district in Kerala was not so lucky and was killed even as she was checking out of the same hotel. According to relatives, Ms. Raseena and her husband Khader Kukadi, an engineer working in Dubai, were on a holiday in Colombo. Mr Kukadi had checked out of the hotel earlier on Sunday and left for Dubai while Ms Raseena was to leave the hotel and visit her brother, Mr. Bahseer, a resident of Colombo. Mr. Basheer, who was to pick Mr Raseena from the hotel, later identified her body at a city hospital.

Steps for flying down the body of Razeena who was killed in a blast at a hotel in Sri Lanka to the State are progressing, the Chief Minister’s office has informed.

In a press communique, the CMO said that the Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs is in touch with the relatives of Razeena as well as the Indian High Commissioner’s office in Sri Lanka. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condoled the death of Razeena.

Mr. Vijayan said that the blasts that occurred on an Easter day point to the communal elements and also underlines the need for freeing countries from the clutch of such elements who nurture intolerance. He condemned the incident and declared solidarity with those involved in a fight against intolerance and communalism.

Lankan intelligence had warned that Mohamad Sararan of “Nations Thawahid Jaman” was to stage a suicide attack’

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, April 22 (newsin.asia): Before the blasts in Colombo and other towns in Sri Lanka on Sunday, a memo warned of a potential attack and requested heightened security, a police source told CNN.

State Intelligence service had said in the memo that information had been received regarding an alleged plan of suicidal attack by the leader of ‘ Nations Thawahid Jaman” Mohomad Saharan.

The memo was dated April 11 and was signed by Sri Lanka’s Deputy Inspector General of police. Priyalal Dissanayake

Sri Lankan Minister of Telecommunication Harin Fernando tweeted a picture of the memo on Sunday.

Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. What my father heard was also from an intelligence officer. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored. I was in Badulla last night,” he wrote.

CNN obtained a copy of the memo. Here’s what it says:

April 11, 2019

Director/ Ministerial Security Division
Director/ Judicial security division
Director/ Retired presidents security Division
Acting Director/ Diplomatic security Division
Acting Director/ Retired presidents security Division

INFORMATION OF AN ALLEGED PLAN ATTACK

Reference to the letter of the defence ministry with regard to the above and the statement of IGP dated 2019.04.09 ref : STAFF05/IGP/PS/OUT/2860/19,

2. We would like to draw your special attention to the a page no 2 to 4 of the statement of the State Intelligence service stating that information has been received regarding an alleged plan of suicidal attack by the leader of ‘ Nations Thawahid Jaman ‘ Mohomad Saharan .

3. According to information of that statement ,would like you to give special attention and inform your staff to provide special security measures to the areas covered by your division.

Priyalal Dissanayake
Deputy Inspector General of Police

Harin tweets intelligence memo warning of a planned attack

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Minister Harin Fernando today tweeted the image of an internal memo and report by the police intelligence of a terror attack to be carried out by an organisation called National Thawheed Jamath.

Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. What my father heard was also from an intelligence officer. Serious action need to be taken as to why this warning was ignored. I was in Badulla last night,” the minister tweeted.

The letter signed by the DIG and dated on April 11 was addressed to a number of key officials in the security services including the Directors of the Ministerial Security Division (MSD), Former Presidents’ Security Division and the Ambassadors Security Division.

The letter titled Information of an alleged plan attack” said the state intelligence services had received information from a foreign intelligence service to the effect that National Thowheed Jamath Leader Mohammed Zahran was about to launch a suicide bomb attack in Sri Lanka targeting famous catholic churches and the Indian High Commission.

In the letter, the DIG requested the concerned authorities to pay attention to the information and to beef up the security provided to VIP personnel and to the locations.

Intelligence failures, soft-peddling envelopes deadliest suicide attacks in Sri Lanka

April 21st, 2019

Hafeel Farisz  Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Two men checked into the Shangri-La which now takes pride of place in the heart of the city on April 20, 2019. They had provided an address in Dematagoda when checking in. Close to 9 a.m. yesterday (April 21) the duo detonated two bombs. One at the packed restaurant cum cafeteria on the 3rd floor of the super luxurious hotel, at which many families had come to indulge in a scrumptious Easter Breakfast, and the next on the corridor of the same floor close to the elevators- not too far from each other. The two explosions rocked the Hotel, with the death toll yet unconfirmed.

This was after the twin explosions at two revered Churches, in Kochchikade and Katana were reported.

The first explosion was at the revered church of St Anthony’s, just outside the city after which the second at the Katuwapitiya Church.

The bombings at the city hotels took place right after. A few minutes after, a massive explosion was reported from the Zion Church in Batticaloa. Police Spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara failed to give specific times.

They were all between 8.45 a.m. and 9.05,” he said.

My ears are still reeling” a worker at Shangri La, who spoke to Daily Mirror last evening said.

We didn’t know what happened,” he said. Foreigners and locals had gathered to identify bodies scattered on the floor. Many still in shock and disbelief.

Many are still missing”, hotel sources said giving a number of those who are yet to be reported back safe.

Another explosion was also reported from the Kingsbury Hotel. At around the same time, the Taprobane Restaurant at the Cinnamon Grand Restaurant, rife with the same festive delight was rocked by an explosion. All three are located at the heart of the city’s establishment.

Sleuths were quick to navigate through the Shangri-la blast.

The suspects were booked to room 616 they told the Daily Mirror. They had recovered two iPhone chargers and other pamphlets and paraphernalia associated with extremist ideology, they said.

They zeroed down on the leads to a building in Dematagoda where they arrested three persons. Three officers were killed as a result of twin explosions around the safe house.

Investigators on the scene said that the Shangri-La blast was a result of at least 25 kilo grams of C-4 explosives. The conclusions are based on initial investigations and await formal confirmation by the Government Analyst.

The Indian media were the first to ascribe blame, giving rise to disbelief initially and speculation thereafter. Top ranking sources informed the Daily Mirror that it was around noon that they uncovered certain identities of the suspects.

However, Indian media was rife with identities of individuals and ideology at least 30 minutes prior. It is uncertain as to how such news was given or gained, with many theories being floated. One is that the Indian Intelligence Agency had warned their Lankan counterparts of the attack.

Sources confirmed that a letter signed by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Priyalal Dasanayake dated April 11 which was widely circulated through social media pertaining to an impending attack, was authentic. The Secretary of Defense and the Establishment did not deny knowledge of the warnings of an attack. The letter specifies the suspected perpetrators too. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also confirmed that information was there”.

Officials sources, however, denied or soft-peddled either willingly or unwillingly the reach of the suspects and their motives. SP Gunasekara at a press conference held at the Ministry of Defense insisted that it was only locals” but did not identify a group. At a meeting held prior to the press conference, for the heads of Media, the Entire Security Establishment insisted that it was all local”.

One group, according to them, had been identified and zeroed in on. At the official presser, journalists were told that 3 persons were under arrest whilst at the previously closed door meeting the number given was 7. The final count was Thirteen persons arrested with 10 detained. Gunasekara, when questioned on the letter, said:

It is still under investigation”. It couldn’t have been lost on him that the investigation” was a mere phone call away, from the person said to have signed the letter.

Unofficially all sources including those at the top rung said that the suspects were all a part of one single ideology. They were all a part of a Radical Islamist group” they confirmed together with the identities of the suspects.

The many questions that arise out of the blanket press story” together with the unofficial titbits were left unanswered.

How did the group form, and why does the State machinery insist that they were acting in isolation? Could they have acted in total isolation? How do normal local Muslims decide to attack another minority group if not any group? What was the ideology and were the perpetrator’s mere actors? How far and wide does the ideology seep in within the local community? What did it take to ensure coordinated suicide blasts around Churches and Hotels at the heart of the country? Who was behind the brainwashing of the individuals and where was the training from? The only local” narrative has to fail, and the questions posed are those of an ordinary civilian. The many other questions which have not been posed must be, and answers must be given. soon.

The local Muslim communities in the Island are in shock and understandably so. The Muslim community was a minority community living on the island with no history of violence. Throughout the millennia of existence, the Muslims were an integral part and parcel of the islands rich heritage and culture. They were ‘Bhoomiputhras’ alongside the other communities.

There was another explosion at Tropical Inn Dehiwala, just beside the National Zoological Gardens at around 1.45 pm killing two. It is unclear as to why or how a motel cum hall was chosen as the target or if the target was missed. The Dematagoda house at which two explosions occurred killing three Crime Divisions officers was the final fatality to a morbid day in Colombo. There were reports of a shoot out in the area too with reports being hazy.

A vehicle was ceased in Ramakrishna Road Wellawatte, suspected to have been used to transport some of the suspects late in the evening. Sources continue to confirm that a safe house in Panadura has been identified, obtained via a prominent online store for rent of Rs. 45,000 a month two months ago.

Information still remains guarded.

We can’t hamper investigations” we were told. But slowly a picture is being painted. The picture of how the deadliest terror attack was perpetrated and by whom is yet to emerge. Only that the picture must be painted fully and accurately, for the public to decide on what course the Island Nations future should take. (

Easter Day Explosions: Death toll hikes to 207, over 450 injured

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy Adaderana

A total of 207 deaths have been reported in the eight explosions which occurred around the country on Easter Sunday (21).

According to the Police Media Spokesperson, over 450 persons have been injured in the explosions which shook the country.

Three policemen dead in Dematagoda blast

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy Adaderana

Three police officers have been reported dead from an explosion at Mahawila Gardens housing scheme in Dematagoda.

Zooming on Sooka

April 21st, 2019

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe


Yasmin Sooka was rolling with glee when she was asked, How did the former Defence Secretary get caught?” Her answer was that it was sheer hubris that led Gotabaya Rajapaksa to take one last chance to visit America. According to her thinking his visit to a Trader Joe’s store proves his arrogance. 

She exclaims, Justice may take a long time, but when it does come, it happens”. Her whole perception was, as if, Rajapaksa had already been convicted, thrown behind bars and the key thrown away.


In reality, he had been informed of only two civil cases had been filed against him. It was not even summons for him to appear before court. He has time to respond to the charges and the onus of proving his guilt is squarely on the shoulders of the plaintiff. 

Good luck to the plaintiffs if they are being advised by Yasmin Sooka with the rest of the legal team also, like her, is unable to differentiate between conviction and of being simply informed.


Clearly, for the plaintiffs’ legal team this simple act of getting the papers across to Rajapaksa had been a huge challenge and its success worth popping the Champaign bottle open. 

Though she found it incredible that he had the audacity to visit a Trader Joe’s store, there’s nothing unusual going to the place. It is as if one finds it the height of arrogance to be shopping at Keells, Aripco, Food City or any of the other supermarkets. After all, Trader Joe’s is simply an American chain of grocery stores based in Monrovia, California with 474 stores in 43 States.


This very simple and straightforward process had been portrayed as if all this time Rajapaska had been in hiding, scurrying from one dark corner to the next before he was finally tracked down and served. It is as if a dangerous mission was bravely accomplished. Hence, the question, how did the former Defence Secretary get caught?”


In truth, handing the papers to Rajapaksa could not have been such a difficult task. He as a dual citizen; has assets, a residence (and as such a permanent address) and family in America. He is in the habit of visiting the country at least two-three times a year and almost always coinciding with the holidays. 

When he returns to America he spends a month or so in the country visiting his family and friends. Even people in Sri Lanka, even those who are not ‘monitoring’ him to prosecute him, know of this routine. 

We know because photos of him with his family and friends regularly appear in social media. Therefore, not much skill was needed to ‘track him down’.


Therefore, there is absolutely no justification at all to wait 10 years to file a civil lawsuit against him. Either, this attests to the sheer incompetence of the plaintiffs’ legal team or there is an ulterior motive in the timing.

 In the absence of any conclusive investigations to pin the blame on Rajapaksa or the fact that he is not even a respondent to any of these investigations, many are sceptical of the lawsuits’ outcome.


Long hound


Trying to entangle Rajapaksa in a legal battle has been in operation since 2015. It was just 10 days after the Yahapalana Government assumed power on 9 January, 2015 that Ryan Goodman wrote to New York Times (under the caption, ‘Helping Sri Lanka’s New Democracy’) that ‘The former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, aren’t politically dead yet…Independent observers have long viewed Gotabaya Rajapaksa as an obstacle, perhaps even more than his brother…’. 

Therefore, ‘It is in the new Government’s interest to move decisively to protect its democratic victory by eliminating the threat of Rajapaksa’s return to power…’


However Goodman notes, ‘Proceeding against  Rajapaksa will be politically challenging for the new Sri Lankan government to do on its own…The United States could help by signalling its own interest in opening a criminal case against  Rajapaksa in the event that Sri Lanka doesn’t. That would give the new government both an opportunity and a justification to clean its house. 

Because of  Rajapaksa’s citizenship, the United States would also be less vulnerable to accusations that it was meddling in the affairs of another nation.’


To be fair, it is not as if the Yahapalana Government did not heed Goodman’s advice for they really did try. First there was this brouhaha over the alleged disappearance of the Ekneligoda case.

 An entire Military Intelligence team was taken into remand custody and most were detained for over a year. The officers and men were chained, handcuffed and paraded before the media while been taken to and from the courts.


The officers and some of their spouses submitted affidavits to the Human Rights Commission against the officer in charge of the investigation. He was accused of exerting severe pressure on them to state that they acted on Rajapaksa’s orders.

 The Human Rights Commission is usually very vociferous, especially when the allegations are against the Sri Lanka Security Forces. However, the course of action taken on these affidavits is not clear.


Since then we have had the second senior officer in the Sri Lanka Navy Commodore DKP Dassanayake along with few other officers taken into custody for their alleged involvement in the abduction of 11 persons. Again, the pressure on them was to pin Rajapaksa to the crime.


When that did not work, Major General Amal Karunasekera who was the Military Intelligence Director during the height of the war and later the Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army was detained, over the assault of Nation Editor Keith Noyahr. 

His arrest was considered a major breakthrough in the case. Much publicity was given to the Police team that went to Australia to get Noyahr’s statement. However, the actual statement did not receive the same attention.


Likewise, high ranking officers of the Army, Navy and the Police had been detained over cases such as the 2012 Welikada Prison riots, assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge, and the death of Thajudeen. 

The investigations have gone even to the extent of exhuming the bodies of Wickrematunge and Thajudeen. Yet, none of these investigations have been successfully concluded.


All these investigations appear to be geared on narrowing on Rajapaska. After Commodore DKP Dasanayaka’s arrest, the next move was to arrest the then Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda and from him to Rajapaksa. Due to severe opposition from the public and Buddhist clergy, it had not been possible to arrest Admiral Karannagoda.


Publicity stunts


For all purposes, this new civil lawsuits appear to be another politically motivated media stunt. At the beginning of the Yahapalana Regime, we saw a lot of these kinds of media shows. 

We saw various MPs carrying huge piles of files to CID, FCID and CIABOC with an entourage of reporters and cameramen. Just in front of the gate there would be the inevitable voice cut promising justice. None of these had moved an inch beyond that step. 

Now, even the local media appears to have got bored with these side shows and does not give as much prominence, as they once did.


Justice and Sooka


If Sooka is really after justice, then she is after the wrong person. She ought to turn her radar on the likes of Adel Balasingham. Then, Sooka would not have to canvass others also to join the lawsuit.

 According to LTTE’s own record, they had deployed around 300 men and women on suicide missions. 

This dubious credit goes to Balasingham for she played a pivotal role in creating these human bombs. In doing so, she is not only responsible for the death and destruction of thousands of lives, but also an ancient culture that revolved around deity.


Today, Balasingham is living very comfortably in London along with many other terrorist hierarchies without a single Human Rights lawyer zooming on any one of them.


ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com

Lasantha’s murder: A factual analysis

April 21st, 2019

By Udaya P Gammanpila Courtesy Ceylon Today

It was a memorable post found in Facebook towards late 2015. It said May aanduwen godagiye dennayi. Ea Lasanthayi Thajudeenuyi vitharayi meaning Only two people have come up under this government. 

They were Lasantha and Thajudeen because their bodies were taken out from their graves”. The deaths of Lasantha and Thajudeen were hot topics during the Presidential Election campaign in 2015. 

Their so-called friends forgot about them after being elected to power. All of a sudden, they have become the focus again after the dissolution of Parliament. Their bodies were taken out from the graves. Soon after the Election, they were able to rest in peace again. 

They became a topic once again only at the last local authority Election held in February 2018. As usual, they were conveniently forgotten soon after the Election. Since the Presidential Election is round the corner, Lasantha’s murder has begun to generate events and news again.


Unethical journalism


Some may be critical of his unethical journalism. I was also highly critical about his politically motivated journalism in which he distorted or suppressed material facts for the advantage of the UNP. Since I closely associated with him, I was about to directly tell my views to his face. 

A few chose the most productive option of challenging him before a court of law. However, nobody had the right to grab his life just because he has unjustly hurt him.


It is unfair by Lasantha for me to mention only the dark side of his journalism. Lasantha should be credited for disclosing several massive corrupt deals and deceptions which were not disclosed by other Media due to fear or favour. If he conducted his investigative journalism without political bias, he would have been honoured by the entire nation with great enthusiasm.


When I allege that Lasantha’s writing was politically motivated, he should be given the opportunity to defend himself. Hence, the truth should be determined by an impartial court after giving a fair hearing to both sides. I have no right to hear my own case and punish Lasantha. Hence, Lasantha’s murder is not a mere homicide, it is an attempt to destroy Media freedom.


Lasantha’s murderers have not been identified yet. However, nobody has doubts about the person behind the murder. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, then the Leader of the Opposition made a revelation about the person responsible for the murder, within 24 hours. 

Addressing Parliament on 9 January 2009, He said that Lasantha was murdered by an army unit directly under Army Commander Sarath Fonseka. He has repeated the same with diplomats on the same day according to a cable sent by then US ambassador on 13 January. This cable is now available on the WikiLeaks website.


Military unit


The UNP had been maintaining the stand that there was a military unit under General Fonseka which abducted and tortured journalists. The then Chief Opposition Whip, Joseph Michael Perera informed Parliament on 8 January 2008 that there was a trend of abducting, torturing and killing journalists. He further said that General Fonseka was behind these illegal activities.


Not only the UNP, Lasantha’s family had identified General Fonseka as the person responsible for the murder. In an interview with ‘The Independent’ of UK in February 2013, Lal Wickrematunga, the brother of Lasantha, said that he had informed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in writing that General Fonseka was responsible for the murder of his brother.


Ardent UNP supporters


Just like Lasantha, his family are also ardent supporters of the UNP. Not only UNP leaders even Lasantha’s family loved the UNP more than Lasantha as evinced by subsequent events. President Rajapaksa had decided to call for an early Presidential Election to exploit the advantage of the military victory. 

In order to prevent President Rajapaksa receiving the advantage of the military victory, another war hero should be fielded by the Opposition. As President Rajapaksa was ranked the Number One war hero, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Army Commander Fonseka were ranked second and third respectively. 

The Opposition did not in their wildest dreams expect Gotabaya Rajapaksa to contest against his own brother. Hence, they targeted General Fonseka.


Conspiracy


As a result of a massive operation, which can also be dubbed as a conspiracy, Fonseka agreed to be the Opposition’s presidential candidate. 

Nine months was just not enough to erase the memory of Lasantha who sacrificed his life for the cause of the UNP. Surprisingly, the UNP chose Fonseka as their candidate and who had been identified by the UNP itself as the person responsible for the murder of their beloved Lasantha. 

The genuine surprise came from Lasantha’s family. They surprised the entire country by deciding to support Fonseka’s candidacy. Fedrica Janz, the successor to Lasantha at Sunday Leader, testified before the court that the Sunday Leader management decided to support Sarath Fonseka at the presidential election, at a meeting chaired by Lal Wickrematunga.


Murdered


Lasantha was murdered in broad daylight. Nobody says he committed suicide. Hence, the UNP and the Wickrematunga family had to find a scapegoat to acquit Fonseka of the unpardonable allegation. Their scapegoat was Gotabaya. The UNP considered Gotabaya as the biggest threat at a future Presidential Election. 

Hence, they transferred the charge from Fonseka to Gotabaya. However, they were cautious not to conduct a genuine investigation because if they did so, police dogs would reach UNP headquarters along the leads to find the true culprits of the murder.


legal action


Meanwhile, Lasantha’s daughter has filed legal action against Gotabaya in the US when he was there, for the murder of her father. Being a US citizen, Gotabaya had visited the US so many times since Lasantha’s murder. 

He visited the US three times within a year in 2018. Lasantha’s daughter never wanted to  file action against him during any of those opportunities. Does she have a specific reason to file action this time around? Of course, yes. 

Gotabaya announced his intention of running for presidency in January 2019. He filed an application for renunciation of his US citizenship in March 2019 which is a pre-requisite for the candidacy. The UNP now wants to prevent Gotabaya from contesting the presidency. In the least they want to sling mud at him.


There is no impact whatsoever on Gotabaya’s renunciation of US citizenship caused by the legal action filed by Lasantha’s daughter. In their attempt to insult Gotabaya, the UNP has insulted itself by shamelessly selling Lasantha’s murder once again for political gain. The UNP is attempting to run with the hare while hunting with the hounds. I genuinely feel sorry for Lasantha since his loved ones have also become a part of this dirty game of politics!

Yes, A Mahatma Got Us Independence. His Name Was Subhas Chandra Bose

April 21st, 2019

by Koenraad Elst  Courtesy Swarajymag

Subhas Chandra Bose 

Subhas Chandra Bose 

Snapshot
  • Popular history had us all believe that it was because of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi that India is independent today.But the truth lies buried away deep, and purposely too, by those who find it difficult to digest.

Bose or Gandhi: Who Got India Her Freedom? G D Bakshi. K W Publishers Pvt Ltd. 244 pages. Rs 500.

General GD Bakshi is not just anyone. After retiring from the army, he became a well-known television face applying his military knowledge both to the contemporary political debate and to classical cultures, e.g. the strategic aspect of the Mahabharata war. Everyone in India knows the story that on his very first day in service, in 1971, he was called to fight in the Bangladesh war — a Just War if ever there was one. It showed that sometimes, going to war is the lesser evil: in this case, it was the only practical way of stopping a Pakistani genocide that was making more victims per day than the whole Indian military intervention made.

Mahabharata For Strategists

It is at several conferences on the Mahabharata, the classic on the theme of Just War (Dharma Yuddha), that I first met the general. There, his cold strategic look at the story, was quite an eye-opener to historians like me, but a bit of a cold shower to more religious types.

For pious denouncers of arch-villain Duryodhana, whose refusal to give even five villages to the rival Pandava brothers counts as the proverbial example of unreasonableness, please consider the strategic angle. After their wedding with Panchala princess Draupadi, the Pandavas might well want the fusion of the Bharata kingdom with Panchala, meaning the conquest of the Bharata kingdom, and in that project, the five villages would acquire tactical value as offensive outposts.

Even Krishna, a common object of devotion, was not spared. As we know, Gandhari, mother of the slain Kaurava brothers, curses him as the real culprit of the war. After all, he as a prince of the Yadava tribe, egged the two sets of Bharata princes on to fight and massacre one another. Not surprisingly, it is the non-Bharatas who profit, with the throne of the Pandava capital Indraprastha falling to a Yadava prince, viz. Krishna’s own grandson. So, though idealised and ultimately even divinised by the epic’s pious editors, Krishna may originally have merely been a calculating strategist mindful of the Yadava tribe’s self-interest. That, at least, is what naked strategic data suggests.

It does not come as a surprise, therefore, that regarding the independence struggle too, General Bakshi brings down a pious legend featuring a canonised saint.

Who Achieved Independence?

In the present volume, Bose or Gandhi, Who Got India her Freedom? (Knowledge World/KW Publications, Delhi 2019, ISBN 978-93-87324-67-1, 216 pp.), Bakshi takes on an important topic from recent history: what factor was decisive in achieving India’s Independence? The received wisdom, both in ‘Congress’ India and internationally, is that this historical achievement was the result of Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent agitation. But was it?

How do you wrest sovereignty over a subcontinent from a world power? The British-Indian empire was built on bluff and on the dividedness of the population against itself. This was not threatened by the initial Congress movement, which was just a talking shop of lawyers pleading for native interests within the British empire. By contrast, it had really been threatened by the Mutiny of 1857, when different communities rallied around the Sepoys (Sipahi, a native soldier in colonial service) and came together to revolt against the British. And this gives the gist of Bakshi’s narrative already away: the British were afraid of military revolt, particularly by the native mercenaries on whom they counted to uphold their imperial edifice, not of pious discourses and slogans.

However, the General does give the Mahatma a part of the honour. No doubt, the shift of Congress activity from lawyerly negotiations to agitation at the mass level was Gandhi’s achievement. He popularised the Freedom Movement. This is undeniable, but the point is: it is not what made the British decide to pack up and leave.

Look at it in more detail than is done in, for example, Richard Attenborough’s propaganda movie Gandhi. The Mahatma’s last campaign was not the camera-savvy Salt March or other events from before the Government of India Act 1935, the reform with which the British managed to renormalise the situation and regain control over political developments. It was the Quit India movement started in August 1942, which was a failure in every respect.

First off, it was based on an assessment of the world situation that seemed plausible in 1942 but turned out to be wrong: that the Japanese would win the war and chase the British from India. In that event, India would be in a better position if it was an independent Asian nation rather than a British colony (though, what about the independent Republic of China?). Second, it created profound dissensions in Congress, which was mostly reluctant to embark upon this adventure.

Strategically, the British were at war and on the defensive, so they would not pull their punches in the repression of any disloyal” agitation; and morally, many Congressmen such as Jawaharlal Nehru were on the British side in that war. Indeed, it is mostly Nehru’s speech against Quit India that made the British decide he was essentially one of us”, so that they started treating him rather than Gandhi as their Congress contact.

Third, though intended to be non-violent, the movement soon lapsed into violence, depriving Gandhi of his moral high ground. Fourth, the British put the movement down brutally but efficiently. Fifth, the Congress leaders were imprisoned and neutralised while their rival Mohammed Ali Jinnah remained free to enlarge his influence. Sixth, when they were released, they were demoralised and had lost credibility.

Especially Gandhi, chiefly responsible for the movement, had been cut to size; he only regained his place in history by his martyrdom.

After the Japanese capitulation on 15 August 1945, the Freedom Movement as such was nowhere to be seen. Paul Johnson and other historians who have lapped up the official version, with the Mahatma as the main motor of decolonisation, write that if the British themselves hadn’t been kind enough to leave, it is unclear how Independence could have come about, as the native dynamic for it had petered out. But they have been tutored to be oblivious of the one factor that dramatically revived the Freedom Movement within weeks: the return (in chains) of the soldiers of Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA) or Azad Hind Fauj.

The INA

After the war had broken out on 3 September 1939, India’s politicians had to choose their camp. Jinnah’s Muslim League automatically sided with the British, and so did Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, mainly for tactical reasons: that way, numerous Hindu young men would get a military training and experience. The sympathies of the Congress largely lay with the British, but they fell out over a procedural matter: the Viceroy had declared war without first consulting with Congress, their partner in administering India’s partial self-rule. So, while its political rivals were earning British gratitude, they remained on the sidelines, never the best way to make the most of a war situation.

The Communists, meanwhile, opposed the imperialist war”, citing the Soviet example on the bourgeois democracies” France and Britain, rather than on Germany; it is only after the German attack on the Soviet Union that they did an about-turn, supporting what had become a people’s war”.

One significant leader remained on his own: Subhas Chandra Bose, born in Cuttack in 1897. He belonged to the Congress’ Left wing, but had been ousted as Congress president by Gandhi. As a response, in 1939, he founded his own party, at first intra-Congress, the Forward Bloc. It would remain in existence after the war and be part of the Communist-led alliance that governed West Bengal for decades.

In spite of being under house arrest in Kolkata, he fled to Afghanistan in January 1940, and thence to Moscow, where he hoped to get cooperation for military action against Britain. He was told that the Soviet Union was not at war with Britain, but their temporary ally Germany was.

Ideologically this did not pose a problem: Bose had always believed that India would need a few decades of dictatorship, which would administer the best elements from both Communism and Nazism (Mind you, this is my own addition to the background sketch. General Bakshi purposely leaves the ideological aspects out of his consideration: some readers might object to Bose’s ideological choices, yet that doesn’t alter his strategic role in forcing the transfer of power, the actual topic of this book). He had already lived in Austria intermittently in 1934-37 and even had a wife and baby daughter there. So, he was brought to Germany, where at once he could raise an Indian army with 3,000 Indians from among the British prisoners of war caught in Dunkirk, with the privilege of only fighting British enemy soldiers.

It is in Germany that Bose received the title Netaji from his men, revered leader”, roughly the translation of Führer or Duce. It was in Hamburg, during the founding of the German-Indian Friendship Association, that his soldiers and well-wishers stood to attention for the first time for Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem.

While Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop had humoured him with vague assurances of support, Bose’s meeting with Adolf Hitler was a cold shower. Hitler expressed his belief in the rightness of British (‘Aryan’) colonisation. When Japan entered the war in December 1941, and asked Germany for Bose after taking hundreds of thousands of Indian prisoners-of-war in Singapore, Germany transported him by submarine in early 1943, and he was now welcome to lead some 40,000 soldiers in the INA.

This force had already been founded by expatriate Indians, notably by Ras Behari Bose, but now it needed a credible leader, and Subhas Bose was the right man for the job.

Bakshi informs us cursorily that from abroad, Bose also did what he could to contribute to the struggle within India, including the Quit India movement. Alas, the delivery of arms and other material which he arranged for, was often sabotaged by unreliable agents, and remained without sizeable effect. His main claim to fame was and still is the INA.

Unfortunately, in military respect, the INA came too late on the scene. It never controlled more of India than the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and some border areas of the Northeast. When it seriously besieged the Northeastern cities of Imphal and Kohima, the momentum of the Japanese advances had passed, and the British-Indian army could take care of it. The INA still fought some battles against the British forces in Burma, but its historic chance in India had passed.

Bose’s Afterlife

In the chaos of war’s end, Bose is said to have died during an aerial accident in Taiwan. That at least is the official version, but since the beginning already, it has been doubted. It was based solely on the eyewitness testimony of a surviving companion and lieutenant of Bose’s, whom British intelligence immediately suspected of merely having thereby carried out orders from Bose himself, who this way had staged his own escape. Bakshi is not into writing a biography here, so sensation-hungry readers will be disappointed to find that he merely gives a nod to Anuj Dhar’s eye-catching book India’s Biggest Cover-Up, 2012, which argues that Bose did indeed escape to the Soviet Union, where he was put in custody.

Nehru was good friends with the Soviet leaders (to the extent that when in 1962, the Chinese, angry with Soviet manoeuvres on the Manchurian borders, decided to pin-prick the USSR, invaded India), so it sounds plausible that they did his bidding, which was to keep Bose out of reach of India.

Bakshi doesn’t evaluate such questions, because no matter what Bose’s ideology or personal destiny, one solid fact deserves to be established now beyond future doubt: his decisive role in achieving Independence.

Indeed, all speculations on Bose’s personal life are dwarfed by the immediate effect of India’s exposure to what the INA had meant. In autumn 1945, a large part of India’s population immediately sided with the INA veterans upon their return (in chains) to India.

The British gradually released the ordinary soldiers in batches, which already had a palpable effect, for as Nehru observed, these men were hard as nails and hated British rule. The eye was mainly on three top defendants. Their trial, in the Red Fort, was meant to send a message to the Sepoys never to be disloyal again. Coincidence would have it that they were a Hindu, a Muslim and a Sikh, which came in handy for the Congress narrative of a pan-Indian unity. Congress leaders buried their one-time diatribes against the INA and offered to defend them in court.

From the Empire’s perspective, the trial really backfired. The people’s mood proved not to be just a fleeting sympathy but threatened to become a rebellion. A large part of this book holds the British military correspondence of autumn-winter 1945-46 against the light. It becomes abundantly clear that the British top brass, especially Viceroy Archibald Wavell and Commander-in-Chief Claude Auchinleck, were in a state of panic. They had received reports from the provinces, including their main recruiting-area Panjab, that their colonial troops could no longer be relied upon. Every Indian had become a nationalist, galvanised by the presence in India of thousands of Bose’s soldiers. Nobody was willing to accept the punishment which the British would normally have given to leaders who had taken up arms against the King-Emperor.

In proportion to the gravity of what from the British viewpoint was a crime, they should have been sentenced to death. Sensing that this would only trigger a revolt, Wavell and Auchinleck arranged for a reduced sentence to transportation for life, which moreover was at once commuted to a token prison sentence. To prevent any incipient unrest, they made sure that this decision was immediately communicated to the public. It became a staged trial with the outcome determined by extra-judicial considerations, a show trial” but this time not to the detriment of the defendants, thanks to the emerging anti-British power equation in society.

But this was to prove insufficient, and the real gravity of the situation was yet to come to light. The British troops sent to India for the war against Japan were being demobilised and repatriated. More than before, the Empire was now dependent exclusively on the Sepoys. And in early 1946, in a number of Naval units, these soldiers bound by oath to the King-Emperor rose in revolt. This was the decisive pillar under the imperial structure: if it crumbled, it was curtains for the Empire.

A combination of repression and moral pressure by Congress, committed to non-violence but also mindful of its own privileged relation with the British, managed to put down this Naval Mutiny. But only for now; the British rulers realised that they might not be so lucky next time. So, they called on London to announce a date for Independence. The last Viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, arrived in March 1947 with the one-point programme of organising the transfer of power.

Other Considerations

What Gandhi had not achieved in decades of campaigning, Bose’s INA achieved posthumously in less than two years: making the British decide to quit India. And this, in fact, without firing too many bullets: if you radiate power, you often don’t have to use it. The court historians have always downplayed the role of the INA and attributed the merit for the achievement of Independence to the Mahatma. But this legend was gainsaid by no less an agent that the British Prime Minister who effected the transfer of power, Clement Attlee. During his visit to India, he was asked what considerations had made him decide to decolonise India. He cited the military equation with the increasing unreliability of the troops, and as for Gandhi’s role, in his estimation, it was m-i-n-i-m-a-l”.

As this book was going to the press, it so happened that official India was finally extending recognition to the INA. A handful of surviving veterans, nearly 100 years old, were driven in an open jeep in the Republic Day parade. When Westerners hear of Bose, they consider him as a mere Axis collaborator. For Indians, he is first of all a national hero, and the cruelties which made the German and Japanese war machines infamous, were not the doing of their Indian army units.

These soldiers did not join their units to fight for some German or Japanese Empire, but for their own Motherland.

In India, some had fought with the British, some against them, some had taken different positions in succession, some had tried to stay on the sides, but at war’s end, it was agreed that everyone had done it for the best of Mother India. In some cases, that was a flattered assessment, but precisely in its flawed truthfulness, it showed the generosity of spirit of Indian patriotism. No one’s war record was scrutinised, for in India on 15 August 1945, the Second World War was really over.

Nationhood

In his introduction and his last chapter, General Bakshi also explores issues of nationhood, India’s unity and integrity, and India’s status as a civilisational state. It is interesting to see how a no-nonsense patriot thinks about the current political contentions.

Of course, he rejects Gandhi’s and to some extent Nehru’s option for a defence without military strength. It is a state’s prime duty to protect its citizens, and this requires an army. As a NATO slogan from my young days said: Peace through strength.” This is a truism, followed by most state leaders in history, and it is not India’s major claim to fame that its national Saint flatly denied it.

India’s integrity demands that the system of caste-based and communal reservations is phased out. This system has been instituted by the British as part of their policy of divide and rule. Since the Government of India Act 1935, and expanded in the Constitution of India 1950, it divides society in birth groups. Then, it was in the name of Imperial Justice”, now it is in the name of its more modern-sounding equivalent, Social Justice”.

That this became the central value of India’s Constitution, and not Liberty” or so, provides an interesting parallel with the contemporary West, where Social Justice” has become the justification for the craziest demands, and indeed for an expanding system of mostly birth-based (racial, gender et cetera.) quota. Yet in India, this did not originate in Marxist or quasi-Marxist sources like Antonio Gramsci or the Frankfurter Schule, but in another system of colonial domination, such as British colonialism. The effect is nonetheless the same: endless dividedness, a variation on the Marxist model of class struggle.

It has logically been the Left that made itself the heir of this British system of reservations, and now champions quota schemes such as job quota for Backward Castes and the 2008 Right to Education Act. Today, little difference is left between the quota philosophy in India and in the US, except for the Indian oddity of the caste system. Bakshi proposes to make short work of this system and replace it with economically-based reservations. These would automatically favour the lower castes, which have more poor people, except their creamy layer”, those who have worked themselves up yet keep on milking the caste-based system and now have most interest in perpetuating birth-based reservations.

With the introduction of the Aadhaar Card, a kind of identity card including one’s financial-economic data, this is now technologically possible.

But there, we have crossed over to the issue of decolonisation”. India wants to get rid of the remnants of colonialism, and one of these is the reservation system. The philosophy was that the benighted natives were naturally unjust and that the coloniser was needed as an impartial arbiter. Later, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty appropriated that role to itself. By now, India is mature enough to shake off such colonial-age solutions.

In parallel, another relic of the colonial age and its immediate aftermath is the lionisation of Mahatma Gandhi as bringer of Independence and the concomitant downplaying of Subhas Chandra Bose’s contribution. That motivated legend is, after this book, no longer sustainable.

Sri Lankan police chief warned about possible bombings 10 days before Easter attacks

April 21st, 2019

RT

Sri Lankan police chief warned about possible bombings 10 days before Easter attacks

Priests walk into the St. Anthony’s Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo. ©REUTERS / Dinuka Liyanawatte

Just 10 days before explosions at six churches and hotels in Sri Lanka claimed some 160 lives, the national police chief reportedly sent an alert about a radical Islamist group planning bomb attacks on prominent churches.

The alert was sent by Pujuth Jayasundara on April 11, AFP reported. It said that Sri Lankan authorities had received a tip from a foreign intelligence service, warning of bomb threat posed by a radical group.

A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian High Commission in Colombo,” the alert said, as quoted by the news agency.

The bombings at three Christian churches and three luxury hotels happened on Easter Sunday, just as churchgoers were converging to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apparently coordinated attacks claimed at least 160 lives and injured hundreds, according to the latest reports, with the death toll expected to rise. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings.ALSO ON RT.COMAround 160 killed, hundreds injured in 6 blasts at Sri Lankan hotels and churches on Easter Sunday

The NTJ is a radical Islamist group based in Sri Lanka, which came to prominence last year after vandalizing Buddhist statues.

Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist nation, with some 70 percent of its population of 22 million following the faith. Muslims are the third-largest denomination after the Hindu, with less than 10 percent of Sri Lankans subscribing to Islam. Christianity is the fourth-largest religion, adherents of which compose some 7.6 percent of the population, according to the 2012 national census.

Around 161 killed, hundreds injured in 6 blasts at Sri Lankan hotels and churches(WATCH LIVE)

April 21st, 2019

RT

Six explosions rocked Catholic churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka as Christians began Easter Sunday celebrations, with at least 161 killed and hundreds more injured, local authorities said.

The blasts occurred at around 8:45am local time at St. Anthony’s Church in Colombo and St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a Catholic-majority town outside of the capital. The Zion Church in Batticaloa on the eastern coast was also targeted.

At around the same time, the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury five-star hotels were also hit, police confirmed. All attacks appear to have been coordinated.

At least 138 people were killed, media reported, citing police. More than 400 were injured in the attacks.

Explosions in Kochchikade, Katuwapitiya and Colombo

April 21st, 2019

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

At least six explosions were reported this morning at three churches in Kochchikade, Katana, and Batticaloa and three five-star hotels in Colombo, police said.

Explosions were reported at St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, Kotahena and St.Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, Katana.

Explosions were also reported at three five-star hotels, the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury in Colombo.

Police said another explosion was reported at a church in Batticaloa.

Several casualties including foreign tourists have been reported.

Simultaneous Terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday-100 killed as churches and hotels targeted

April 20th, 2019

Courtesy BBC


At least 100 people are reported to have been killed and hundreds more injured in explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

At least six explosions have been reported. Three churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa were targeted during Easter services.

The Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels, all in Colombo, were also hit.

Media captionDeadly explosions strike across Sri Lanka

Easter Sunday is one of the major feasts in the Christian calendar.

Images on social media showed the inside of one of the churches – St Sebastian’s in Negombo – with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews.

Sri Lankan media report that foreign tourists may be among the casualties.

Some media sources are putting the death toll even higher. Reuters quoted a police source as saying more than 50 died in Negombo alone.

A hotel official at the Cinnamon Grand, near the prime minister’s official residence, told Agence France-Presse the explosion there had ripped through a restaurant, killing at least one person.

‘Horrible scenes’

President Maithripala Sirisena has issued a statement calling for people to remain calm and support the authorities in their investigations.

PM Ranil Wickremesinghe is chairing an emergency meeting.

On Twitter, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the attacks appeared to be a “well-co-ordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy” and had killed “many innocent people”.

Another minister, Harsha de Silva, described “horrible scenes” at St Anthony’s Shrine in Kochchikade, saying he had seen “many body parts strewn all over”.

No-one has yet said they were responsible for the attacks.

There have been fears that returning fighters from the Islamic State group could pose a threat in the country.

In the years since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, there has been some sporadic violence, with members of the majority Buddhist Sinhala community attacking mosques and Muslim-owned properties. That led to a state of emergency being declared in March 2018.

Map

Rising power of Thirupathi politics

April 20th, 2019

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island

article_image

Are we heading with speed towards Solar Relief? The Avurudu highlights of solar tradition were completed with joyous participation of the people, and we had the recognized leader of the nation, President Sirisena, travel at speed to India the next day, to participate in a ritual at the Thirupathi Kovil.

For those who follow the Hindu tradition and belief, we are now living in the Kali Yuga – the period of darkness and divisiveness, hatred and greed, warfare and inequality. The deity at Thirupathi – Lord Sri Venkateswara, an incarnation of Vishnu, who is believed to have appeared to save mankind from, the trials and troubles of the Kali Yuga.

Let’s get it all straight. Thirupathi is the divine hope and expectation of all our political leaders. It is the place of worship and pleading to divinity by Maithripala Sirisena, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Hindu Tamil leaders, and almost all other political leaders and catchers, who make a very big noise about this being a Sinhala Buddhist country and society.

How can a people who claim to be Buddhists have so much belief and faith in a Hindu diety; and how does a society that is largely organized on the lunar calendar and customs, such as the Poya Day, leap with such speed and distance to the deities in the solar tradition?

How can a country that seeks to accept the Thripatakaya as a national heritage of Sri Lanka, and also call for inscription of the Thripatakaya in the World Register of Monuments, be so wholly committed to the worship of Hindu deities, and beliefs in the power and help of divine forces in politics, governance and day-to-day living?

The Sri Lanka Government organized special Thripitaka events to ensure its international recognition at special diplomatically organized ceremonies in the US, Europe and other parts of the world. Doesn’t the acceptance of the Thripitakaya and its values of Buddhist teaching pull one away from any belief or faith in the deities of Hinduism, or any other faith based on divinity – of one or many gods?

The problem the country faces today is that of a competition between the Thripitakaya and Thirupathi, and all signs are that Thirupathi is racing ahead, with the Thripitakaya possibly being confined to Aluvihara, even after any national or international recognition.

All the rituals of the Avurudu Sirith are drawn from the solar traditions, and that is how it has been through the years. But, what is now seen in a dominance of the belief in the power of deities, moving far away from the rationalist thinking of Buddhist teaching. Our people are being fast moved away from the values of meditation and rationality, which is the Buddhist Way of Life, to that of an increasing and overriding faith in the deities, – at Thirupathi and elsewhere.

We need not look very far. Just look above the wrists of all our political and most social leaders and you will see the threads of divinity tied there. From the white ‘pirith noola’ that is said to bring divine favour or protection, these hands have threads of many colours too, often stretching upwards towards the elbow, bringing the blessings of many deities. Around the necks of many are amulets that carry the charms assuring deity assistance, and on their fingers are also gold rings with coloured and costly stones, with assurances of the help of deities.

As our education system crumbles we see increasing influence of the deities in helping students to pass their examinations, strongly supported by both parents and teachers, including the tuition earners.

The Bodhi Pooja, a tradition of offering gratitude to the Bodhi Tree that gave shelter to Siddhartha Gauthama to become enlightened as the Buddha, is now given divine powers that no tree can have, to help in exam passes, cure of patients, winning of sweep tickets and also sadly, to cause harm to enemies.

The Avurudu anointing of heads at the Nekath Velaava is a tradition of warm good wishes, both to humans, elephants and other pets. It must be kept as such, and not moved into an ascending faith in deities beyond the richness of a human blessing of good intent, and not a call to the power of deities.

Thriupathi Vandanaa will soon gain both prominence and dominance in the play of politics in the country, as elections – both presidential and parliamentary – draw closer. The Executive Presidency and office of Prime Minister will be the plea to Lord Sri Venkateswara, to bring the nomination and later results in favour of the pleading politicos. The Thirupathi deity will certainly have a problem of choice, unless he is moved by the load and value of offerings made and prayers chanted.

How much can the deity at Thirupathi influence the millions of voters in this country? Let’s keep looking at the miracle threads round the wrists, the widening amulets round the necks and the shining gems on the costly rings of politicians.

Let the people decide, and not any god or deity, on saving us from the trials and troubles of the Kali Yugaya.

‘Everybody Lies’, a book on Big Data: Benefits of Digital Truth Serum

April 20th, 2019

By Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island

Everybody Lies – What the Internet Can Tell Us about Who We Really Are’ (Seth Stephens – Davidowitz, London, Bloomsbury Publishing, Paperback edition, 2018, 338 pp, ISBN 978 – 1- 4088 – 9473 – 6) is a book on Big Data (a term explained below), which introduces a still evolving subject in an informal, entertaining manner. It was first published in Great Britain in 2017. Though the book is primarily addressed to an American audience, the author being an American (a New Yorker) and the basic subjects of his study being Americans, it is also intended for a much more global readership, which, in my opinion, it well deserves. I am left with the impression that it would be of great appeal to interested general readers like me as well as internet data experts or data scientists like the author Stephens-Davidowitz himself; it will also be of special interest to young college students who are looking forward to a career in Data Science. (Incidentally, it was while I was contemplating writing this review after reading the book a week or two ago that I came across a media news report from Sri Lanka about some student agitators from the Sabaragamuwa University there demonstrating near the Parliament roundabout, demanding an increase in the number of admissions to the Social Sciences and Languages Faculty in their university. The relevance of this piece of news here is that the development and illustration of Stephens-Davidowitz’s ideas in this book are almost entirely in relation to the broad subject domains of social sciences and languages usually covered at university level anywhere in the world.)

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a New York Times journalist, a former visiting lecturer at the Wharton School of Pennsylvania University, and a former data scientist at Google. He holds a BA Phi Beta Kappa in philosophy from Stanford and a PhD in economics from Harvard.

That everybody lies is Seth’s unflattering discovery about us common humans.  But he seems to have made an extra effort to reveal the truth about himself as a person, researcher and writer. His wish to be candid about himself is evident throughout the text, which  incorporates personal details that touch on his interactions with his family, friends, his tutors and colleagues, etc, particularly in the beginning and the concluding  chapters, and in addition, in the ‘Acknowledgements’ section. He does not claim all the credit for this product of  rigorous intellectual discipline and labour. He describes the book as ‘a team effort’. It was obviously a large team. His parents are imlicitly included in that team. His mother Esther Davidowitz read the entire manuscript a number of times, we are told, and helped ‘dramatically improve it’. During a job interview, a professor grilled him: ‘What does your mother think of  this work you do?’ Seth explains why the professor asked him this: ‘The idea was that my mom would be embarrassed that I was researching sex and other taboo topics. But I always knew that she was proud of me for following my curiosity, wherever it led’ (as she always advised him to do). His father Mitchell Stephens’ involvement was perhaps even more important, for without him, Seth gratefully acknowledges, he could not have finished the book. This was because, at one point, Seth felt ‘deeply stuck, lost, and close to abandoning the project’. So, the old man took his son to the country, and did what he could to restore his spirits. He discussed things such as love, death, success, happiness, and writing with his son.The point Seth is making by this is that he is a normal imperfect human being who is very close to one or another of us. But with the special insights we netizens gain from reading his book, we would hardly allow ourselves to be unsuspecting guinea pigs of his experiments!

Seth adopts an easy, chatty, informal style of writing, enlivened with a pleasant sense of humour, which makes his extremelycomplicated and complex subject accessible to most readers. He launches into his task with a short description of a certain family Thanksgiving dinner table conversation in which the subject of choosing a suitable bride for him, at thirty-three years of age already, crops up. Seth’s sister, brother and father believe that he is crazy, but his mother doesn’t think so. The sister proposes that they look for a girl who is crazy like him to match his craziness, while the brother’s suggestion is for a normal young woman ‘to balance him out’. It is obvious that they are all passing judgement on Seth based on what information (data) they possess about him. At this point, it is his soft-spoken  eighty-eight year old grandmother who joins in with: ‘Seth, you need a nice girl. Not too pretty. Very smart. Good with people. Social, so you will do things. Sense of humour, because you have a good sense of humour.’ 

Why does this old woman’s advice command such respectful attention in his family?, Seth asks, and he answers his own question: Having observed many marriages, some of which worked and some didn’t, she has catalogued, over a long time, the personal qualities of marriage partners that contribute to successful relationships. She has had access to the largest number of data points about the subject. In view of this, Seth says, his grandmother is Big Data. The grandmother analogy is in keeping with his declared intention in this book, which is to ‘demystify’ data science.

 A data scientist mines the big data on the internet/web for four unique powers that, Seth claims, Big Data has. (It is good to remember that the internet and the web are not identical, as we all know; here, we are more concerned with the internet, which really is the virtually limitless ever growing, ever renewing ocean of information.) He illustrates these characteristic strengths of big data through his analytical comment on Sigmund Freud in Chapter 2 titled ‘Was Freud Right?’ Big data analysis gives a more reliable method to understand the secretive human mind and the social reality than our intuition (‘our faulty gut’, as Seth calls it) or conventional wisdom The powers of big data, according to Seth, are fourfold: i) it offers new types of data, e.g., pornographic material, ii) it provides honest data; for example, porn data is not only new, but undisguised, iii) big data enables us to zoom in on small subsets of people, and iv) big data allows data scientists to do many causal experiments, that is, it makes it possible for them to carry out rapid controlled experiments that focus on causality, not on mere correlation.

Data science is the same concept as Big Data. As it is a fast evolving field, it is not easy to find a comprehensive definition of big data that is accessible to the general reader. The following is a satisfactory enough explanation of Big Data adapted from the Wikipedia (as of March 7, 2019): ‘Big data refers to datasets that are too large or complex for traditional data processing application software to adequately deal with…. Big data challenges include capturing data, data storage, data analysis, search, sharing, transfer, visualization, querying, and updating information privacy and data source’. What Seth offers us in the book is data science in practice, so we experience a more concrete sense of the abstract notions involved.

Seth starts his introduction  with an explanation of what led to Donald Trump’s surprise win at the 2016 US presidential election in terms of data science. Most polling experts had predicted that Donald Trump was going to lose. Seth, as a data scientist, maintains that Trump’s superior performance, both at the primaries and the general election, was reflected in the internet data at the time. He concluded that racism played a significant part in the Trump victory.  Seth arrived at this conclusion by scientifically analyzing the large number of Google searches that Americans carried out privately during the relevant period. Seth implies that the pollsters went wrong about the presidential election results because they missed lots of information that are available in the internet that would have helped them understand many subjects including elections.

What Seth claims to have discovered is that everybody lies. People lie about everything. Parents lie to children and vice versa, lovers lie to each other, husbands lie to wives, and wives to husbands, and so on. Why do people do that? It’s because they want to look good. That is why they lie about their own embarrassing behaviours and thoughts. This is called social desirability bias. Seth suggests that the pollsters’ failure to correctly predict Donald Trump’s 2016 victory was probably due to social desirability bias on the part of the voters surveyed; that is, they lied in order to hide their racist prejudice against Barak Obama. Not only do people lie to others, they lie to themselves! People say they don’t want to stalk their friends. But the truth is that they always want to keep up with their friends and judge them, a fact that Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder of Facebook, made use of  to become a multi-billionaire.

The second power of big data already mentioned above is that it provides honest data. Certain online sources get people to admit things that they would not reveal anywhere else. Similarly, there is a tendency for them to be truthful in their private Google searches and responses. They provide an incentive for people to tell the truth.  For example, if someone is suffering from depression they may be unwilling to reveal this to a survey, but they will have an incentive to make Google searches for symptoms of depression and suitable remedies for it with no fear of being exposed to possible social stigma on this account.  Datasets consisting of such searches and responses provide a good source of information for data experts to explore in order to reveal the inner nature of the human mind and the hidden reasons that account for inexplicable social realities.

Stephens-Davidowitz holds that, on the average, ‘digital truth serum’ tells us that the world is worse than we think it is. However, according to him, this knowledge can improve our lives in three ways: 1) it can be comforting to know that you are not alone in your insecurities and embarrassing behaviours; he updates the well known self-help quote ‘Never compare your insides to everyone else’s outsides’ thus: ‘Never compare your Google searches to everyone else’s social media posts’; 2) it alerts us to people who are suffering; the Human Rights Campaign has asked Seth to work with them in helping them to educate men in certain states to come out of the closet (this is a reference to gay men); child-abuse victims can also be helped through Big Data; and 3) its ability to lead us from problems to solutions is perhaps the most powerful value in the digital truth serum: ‘With more understanding, we might find ways to reduce the world’s supply of nasty attitudes’.

The lankacnews.com online journal carried news about two scandalous episodes involving some members of the Sri Lankan FB community. The later report was about a YouTube video that showed a wife-beating incident that had taken place some seven months ago, but that the victim had remained passive about at the time; now, however, she feels bitterly aggrieved at it, while the offending male contemptuously dismisses the concerns expressed on her behalf by the ‘avajaathakayin’ (ill-bred busybodies) who, allegedly, are raising a hue and cry about it in the social media. It is shocking that this young man who not only beat up his wife or living together partner while allegedly videoing it calls the critics of his actions ill-bed”. I, for one, wish the local no-violence-against-women campaigners took immediate action. Both of these young people seem to be in need of help. Violence against women is a global problem, and it figures in Big Data activity. Readers of ‘Everybody Lies’ will find much to read about the subject and countless other problems that afflict the modern world.

The earlier reported incident was datelined the same day it happened or it had happened the day before. The news was published in the lankacnews website on April 7, 2019. It is about a celebratory event held to mark the Sinhala Aluth Avurudda, a traditional cultural festival of great antiquity, at Campbell Park, Colombo. The activity had been organized by some young Facebookers. Traditional games, trials of strength for fun, and other forms of recreation, especially among young men and women,  that go on for days sometimes, are part and parcel of the celebrations connected with the Aluth Avurudda. The young Facebook activists reportedly introduced a new, previously unheard of, item named ‘kukkubeeme tharangaya’ or a ‘suckling match’ during which, as a photo shows, two young men were sucking at bottles, seemingly containing milk, held by two young women in their armpits close to their breasts, as if they were ‘suckling’ those two ‘babies’, (something, needless to say, that would have been outrageously offensive to the traditional cultural sensitivities of the Sinhalese, who are the principal celebrants of the festival,  had it been staged in the more conservative rural areas; it has triggered a lot of adverse comments within the Facebook community itself).

The ‘suckling match’ novelty resonates with, or even confirms, something unexpected that Stephens-Davidowitz has encountered through Big Data analysis. He says that he sometimes hits upon a new dataset that reveals a behavior, desire or a concern that he would have never even considered. There are many sexual propensities that fall into this category. For example, in India, the number one Google search beginning my husband wants….” is my husband wants me to breastfeed him”! According to Seth, this comment is far more common in India than in other countries. He further says that ‘porn searches for depictions of women breastfeeding men are four times higher in India and Bangladesh than in any other country in the world’. The same observation might apply to Sri Lanka. I don’t know whether the ‘suckling match’ reveals an existing sexual aberration, diversion, perversion, psychotic condition, or some other diseased state among young Sri Lankans. But there is no doubt that it is culturally unacceptable behaviour for most Sri Lankans irrespective of ethnicity.

Big Data analysis has infinite potential to help us improve our private and social lives, and the country as a whole by revealing strange but powerful hidden truths about ourselves and our society. However, as Stephens-Davidowitz cautions us, Big Data must be handled with care. For there are dangers too, intrinsically associated with it. Of these, two are prominent. These he characterizes as empowered corporations and empowered governments. The terms are self-explanatory, and Sri Lankans are too familiar with the harmful consequences of both to need any explicit elaboration.  


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