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A person has been arrested along with 51 sticks of water-gel explosives, 215 detonators and a motorcycle during a search operation at Erakkandi, Trincomalee.
The suspect was arrested with the explosives by Sri Lanka Navy personnel, who were carrying out a search in the area
Police have recovered 49 knives from the premises of a mosque in the Maskeliya area during a search operation carried out this morning.
The police officers who engaged in a search operation of the mosque premises had discovered 49 knives and 3 small axes inside a storage room.
The person in charge of the said storage room was taken into custody as he had failed provide an explanation with regard to the possession of these weapons.
The Deputy Mayor of Negombo, Mohamed Ansar, has been arrested for the pssesion of a sword, a dagger and 37 mobile phone batteries, Police said.
The arrest was reportedly made during a search operations by police officers.
All day people were coming in and out of the house with the pale-pink walls, and neighbours were becoming suspicious. An elder in the village of the eastern Sri Lankan city of Kalmunai was summoned to confront the men who had rented the property a few weeks before.
The discussion soon became tense, and a tall, well-built man whom the elder did not recognise walked out of the house carrying an automatic weapon. You have no business being here,” he said, according to the elder, firing a few rounds into the air and sending neighbours fleeing.
By the early hours of Saturday, 15 people were dead, including three children, and the walls of the house were blackened by the force of three explosions from the suicide bombers who had been cornered inside.
Reuters reported on Saturday that a woman and child injured in the fighting were the wife and daughter of Mohammed Zahran Hashim, the extremist preacher identified as the leader of the terrorist cell responsible for killing at least 253 people in a string of bombings of churches and luxury hotels. Police sources said the woman was in a serious condition.
The 90-minute gun battle in the city, about seven hours’ drive from the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, is part of an ongoing hunt for accomplices and sympathisers of the suicide bombers that has led to dozens of arrests and controlled explosions of suspicious vehicles and packages.
Sri Lankan leaders have estimated there are at least 70 people still at large, some capable of exploding themselves”, the country’s prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, told the Observer. Both the US and India stepped up their travel warnings for nationals seeking to visit Sri Lanka on Saturday.
The house in Kalmunai had been rented by a man claiming to be a telecommunications engineer, the landlord, who asked not to be named, said. He had paid cash, but unusually, had not asked for a discount for doing so. Money had not appeared to be a problem.
On Friday night a civilian was killed in the crossfire between police and the men inside and at least three others were injured, police said.
On Saturday afternoon, a video started to be shared on Islamic State’s online channels purporting to show three men inside the house. Those who try to destroy us will be a taught a lesson,” says one man, who appears to have just one eye and several mangled fingers. Children can be heard in the background.
The next man speaks holding a rifle in one hand and his toddler son in the other. Those who wish to do us harm are surround us now,” he says. Even if we are destroyed this movement will not be stopped.” It is not clear when the video was shot and its authenticity has not been verified.
Since Sunday’s attack by the radical network, led by Hashim, a previously obscure radical preacher, police are re-examining a series of incidents that they now view as possible red flags that militants in the country were becoming more violent and brazen.
Authorities are now actively investigating whether the murder of two policemen last year at a remote police checkpoint in Vavunathivu, a town in the eastern district of Batticaloa, was also committed by members of the network, sources inside the investigation revealed on Saturday. A gun thought to belong to one of the murdered officers was found inside the house that was raided in Kalmunai on Friday night, sources said. At the time, the murder was suspected to be the work of remnants of the Tamil Tigers.
The vandalism of four Buddhist statues in Mawanella, a central town, about a month after the shooting of the officers is also being seen a crucial change in tactics: the first time men linked to Hashim turned their ire on people of another faith, after years of harassing other Muslims.
This may have been a tryout,” Wickremesinghe said. We know that before the Buddhist images there were attacks on Sufi mosques. So they appeared to be going step by step. First their own Muslims, then the Buddhists, and there was something in a small church near Kandy, information that they wanted to damage the church.”
Authorities received multiple warnings about Zahran from Muslim community leaders and specific intelligence in the weeks, days and possibly hours before the 21 April attacks that the extremist was planning to target churches.
Why those warnings were ignored has been the subject of recriminations this week inside Sri Lanka’s bitterly divided government.
There was a communications breakdown because nothing was being shared with me and the prime minister,” said Ruwan Wijewardene, Sri Lanka’s defence minister, who had been excluded from security council meetings since a constitutional crisis cleaved the government into factions last October.
The country’s president, Maithripala Sirisena, who chairs the security council meetings, says he was never told of the threat either. Blame has fallen on the country’s top defence bureaucrat, Hemasiri Fernando, and the chief inspector of police Pujith Jayasundara.
Fernando quit on Thursday evening after submitting a defiant resignation letter. I have disseminated the information I received and carried out my responsibility, however, certain officials and relevant departments have not acted accordingly, and as a result we had to face this terrible tragedy,” he wrote.
In past months, Sirisena has been deploying the resources of the country’s security apparatus towards a war on drugs inspired by the brutal campaign of the Philippines president, Rodrigo Duterte. A vast network of military and intelligence officials are also spread out through the country’s north, keeping watch on Tamil civilians the embers of the Tamil Tigers militia.
Drugs have always been an issue to us, but we also had to be on our guard against terrorism, global terrorism,” Wickremesinghe said. Some people were looking really at the re-emergence of the [Tigers] but I couldn’t see that.”
Late on Saturday, Sirisena announced he was banning two groups allegedly linked to the Easter bombings under emergency powers that came into effect on Tuesday. His office said National Thawheed Jammath, or NTJ, and Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem, or JMI, would be banned by presidential decree.
Presidential spokesman Dharmasri Ekanayake said the move allowed the government to confiscate any property belonging to the two organisations.
The one-week mark since the devastating attack will be quietly honoured, with churches advised not to hold Sunday masses. A small service will be led by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith in Colombo, and broadcast on national television. His eminence [the cardinal] has advised us not to gather people in churches,” said a spokesman. In place of that, his eminence is expecting the faithful to watch the mass in spirit.”
Another service is scheduled to be held in a tent outside St Sebastian’s church in Negombo, where last week, a bomber with a backpack entered the middle of the church towards the end of the service, turned his back to the congregation, and detonated himself. More than 100 people were killed there.
Source: The Guardian
President Maithripala Sirisena has taken steps to ban two local Islamist groups in Sri Lanka suspected of carrying out the attacks on churches and hotels on Sunday.
In terms of powers vested in him as the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka under Emergency Regulations No. 01 of 2019, the President has taken steps to declare the organizations National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim (JMI) banned in Sri Lanka.
As such, all activities of those organizations as well as their property will be seized by the government the President’s Media Division said.
Steps are being taken to ban other extremist organizations operating in Sri Lanka, under Emergency Regulations, the statement said.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks that killed more than 250 people and wounded about 500.
The authorities in Sri Lanka have said the attack had been carried out by a local group, National Thowheed Jamath, with help from international militants and possibly another local militant group, Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.
Colombo, April 27 (Reuters): The wife and daughter of Mohamad Zahran Hashim, the suicide bomber cum mastermind of the serial bombings in Colombo and two other cities on April 21, were injured in the explosion in the Islamic State safe house at Sainthamarudu in Eastern Sri Lanka on Friday night.
The shootout at a safe house erupted as police hunted for people linked to Mohamed Zahran Hashim who has been named as the ringleader of the Easter Sunday bombings.
Yes, the wife and daughter were injured in the attack,” said Mohamed Hashim Mathaniya , sister of Zahran. I was asked to come to identify them but I am not sure I can go, ” she told Reuters from the town of Kattankudy in the east.
Police officials said the injured were believed to be Zahran’s relatives.
At least 15 people including six children were killed in the gun battle, a military spokesman said earlier.The shootout at a safe house erupted on Friday in Sainthamaruthu in Ampara district on the east coast as police hunted for people linked to Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran, who has been named as the ringleader of the Easter Sunday bombings.
Yes, the wife and daughter were injured in the attack,” said Mohamed Hashim Mathaniya , sister of Zahran. I was asked to come to identify them but I am not sure I can go, ” she told Reuters from the town of Kattankudy in the east.
Police officials said the injured were believed to be Zahran’s relatives.
At least 15 people including six children were killed in the gun battle, a military spokesman said earlier.
A day after 15 individuals, including six children, were reported killed in suicide blasts at a suspected Islamist safe house in the Sri Lankan town of Kalmunai, a plainclothes military intelligence officer arrived at the home of Madhaniya, the 26-year-old sister of Zahran Hashim, the suspected mastermind of the coordinated terrorist bombings that killed over 250 people on Easter Sunday.
The officer asked Madhaniya and her husband Sherif Niyas, a small-time dealer of secondhand vehicles, to come with him to a hospital near Ampara to identify the 15 bodies.
Zahran Hashim blew himself up at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo on April 21. Another of his and Madhaniya’s brothers, Mohammed Zeyin Hashim, is missing — it is possible he was killed in the attacks, or is still at large, investigators believe.
Among those killed at the safehouse on Friday evening were a third brother of Zahran’s, his wife and their two children; the wife of the missing brother, Zeyin, and their two children; another sister of Zahran’s, her husband and their child; at least one of Zahran’s two children; and Zahran and his siblings’ elderly parents.
Please ask them to show me photos, I will (identify). I cannot go and see (dead bodies),” Madhaniya told Niyas in Tamil. After a word with the officer, he replied to her: He (the officer) says if it is indeed them, this will be the last time you will get to see them. They are terrorists.”
Zahran Hashim blew himself up at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo on April 21. Another of his and Madhaniya’s brothers, Mohammed Zeyin Hashim, is missing — it is possible he was killed in the attacks, or is still at large, investigators believe.
Among those killed at the safehouse on Friday evening were a third brother of Zahran’s, his wife and their two children; the wife of the missing brother, Zeyin, and their two children; another sister of Zahran’s, her husband and their child; at least one of Zahran’s two children; and Zahran and his siblings’ elderly parents.
The Sunday Express was present when the Sri Lankan military officer visited the two-room, single-storey, rented home of Madhaniya and Niyas in Kattankudy on Saturday afternoon. Later in the evening, Niyas claimed that the officer had showed him pictures of two survivors of the blasts at the Kalmunai safehouse — they were of Zahran’s wife’s and one of their two children’s, he said.
Asked about Niyas’s claim, Brigadier Sumith Atapattu, spokeperson of the Sri Lankan Army, said the military was working in collaboration with the police department, and he could not immediately reveal much information.
Sixteen members of the family, including seven children and Zahran’s parents, had gone missing three days before the Easter Sunday blasts. Madhaniya told The Sunday Express she knew nothing of the so-called Islamic State, which had allegedly inspired her brother to kill so many people.
We (Madhaniya and Zahran) stopped talking in 2017 after he started spitting venom in his speeches. He had been a fiery orator on Islam and a crowdpuller at streetcorner meetings from his teenage days. But I couldn’t take it any longer after he started to preach against the government, the national flag, against elections, and against other religions. He brought catastrophe upon our family,” she told The Sunday Express.
Kattankudy is a Muslim-dominated town on Sri Lanka’s eastern coast. Madhaniya and Niyas’s home is situated barely 100 metres from the National Thowheeth Jama’ath masjid, a large two-storey structure with glass walls, the mosque where Zahran was allegedly radicalised. Residents of the area said on Saturday evening that the mosque has been under renovation for over two years.
Her brother, Madhaniya said, had started to claim that his own interpretation of Islam was the only true faith. He was offensive about other religions, as well as moderate Muslims and Sufis. He would call Sufis drug addicts and smokers. My husband kept away from him as we felt that he was moving in a dangerous direction. The police were already monitoring him,” Madhaniya said.
Even though she had cut off connections with Zahran, she continued to send food to her parents, who stayed with her sister and her family in a nearby street, Madhaniya said. But they disappeared suddenly on Thursday (April 18). Neighbours told us on Friday that they were not at home. Their phones had been switched off. Then the blasts happened, and we learnt the role Zahran had played,” Madhaniya said.
The whole family, she said, might have gone together”, leaving only her and Niyas out because she was strongly opposed to Zahran’s hatred towards the whole world”.
According to Madhaniya, Zahran dropped out of school in Class 6, but retained a strong interest in Islamic studies. He completed a course in Arabic to memorise the Quran, and showed an unusual interest” in propagating his ideas on Islam. In 2006, he started an Islamic studies centre. He lost God because he learnt the Hadiths from the wrong people, and he learnt to kill people instead. I should say that I am happy that he is no more,” Madhaniya said.
On some unverified reports that Zahran visited Tamil Nadu, Madhaniya said that in her knowledge, the only foreign trip he had made was to Japan a decade ago. Someone from Colombo took him to Japan for a month. His job was to give Tamil Muslims there classes on the Quran. After 2017, I doubt he went abroad, because his passport and identification numbers were already with the police by then,” she said.
He would listen to the Quran alone. He considered everything else a sin, and those who listen to music too were sinners for him. He believed that his interpretation of the religion was the best, and all others were bad. His idea of Islam was not ours,” Madhaniya said.
In March 2017, Zahran and his followers clashed with Sufi Muslims, and he made a provocative speech about moderate Muslims. As the heat on him increased, he fled.
He was absconding since March 2017 because he was to be arrested. People in the neighbourhood say that he would visit his parents discreetly, in a vehicle with dark windows. He was the victim of the Wahhabi Islam that Sri Lankans who went to Gulf in the 1980s brought back with themselves. Wahhabism has killed our traditional values, and painted moderate Muslims like us as kafirs,” said H M Ameer, secretary of the Sufi Badhariya Masjid, who had contested Zahran’s ideas.
He challenged and threatened us publicly in meetings. He called us renegades. He ridiculed traditional Islamic practices that we followed. Wahhabi Islam made him a conservative, then an extremist, and finally a terrorist,” said Ameer, who had sent several detailed complaints to the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry and terrorist investigation cells against Zahran.
The National Towheeth Jama’ath can claim that he was expelled after 2017, but his brother headed it afterward. Now this brother is also missing or killed. He (the brother) would speak about the war in Syria, and tell Muslims that they should all live in the Islamic State,” Ameer said.
At the largely deserted National Towheeth Jama’ath mosque on Saturday, The Sunday Express found two young men who had come for prayers. We heard of this (the alleged involvement of the National Towheeth Jama’ath in the blasts). I have seen Zahran here many times. We knew that there were problems, but this is a masjid. What is there to fear about a masjid?” one of the two men said.
KARACHI – Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor has said that India is the enemy of both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and recent terrorism in Sri Lanka seems an international conspiracy for which fingers are being pointed at India.READ MORE: Pakistan U19 tour to Sri Lanka postponed
He was speaking at a candlelight vigil arranged by the PDP here Saturday at Karachi Press Club (KPC) to show solidarity with the government and people of Sri Lanka.
The PDP said that people of Pakistan and Sri Lanka have rendered numerous sacrifices for peace and braved huge human and economic losses besides political instability while fighting terrorism. He pointed out that India is not only the enemy of Pakistan but it is also the enemy of solidarity and peace in Sri Lanka. That’s why fingers are being pointed at India regarding recent terrorism in Sri Lanka,” he alleged.
Shakoor said that the masses of Pakistan and Sri Lanka are bound in the relation of friendship and love. He said that people in Pakistan could easily understand the pain of their Sri Lankan brethren. He said the recent terrorism in Sri Lanka is an international conspiracy so as to pitch people of different religions and faiths against one another.
He said Pakistan and Sri Lanka have always raised voice for global peace. He urged the international community to take steps for a lasting world peace after mutual consultations. He expressed heart-felt condolence to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.READ MORE: PPP leaders from KP briefs Bilawal on mega corruption of PTI in Billion Tree project
PDP Karachi chapter president Abdul Hakim Quaid, General Secretary Sardar Zulfiqar, PDP Lyari leader Akram Agaria, Amjad Baloch, Fazal Rabi Khan, Aziz Fatima and others were also present. A large number of citizens, PDP workers and peace activists attended the candlelight vigil.
After the election of Yahapalana regime in 2015, there are many concerns to people of Sri Lanka and the major question was whether the government was a responsible government which focused to protect people and fulfill the needs of people. Immediate after the election of the president, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was robbed and the responsible people for domestic and foreign security attempted to relax laws and regulations in the name of Yahapalanaya and the policy actions of the government created a severe risk to Sri Lanka as well as overseas.
After the Easter Sunday bombs explosions in churches and hotels and killing innocent unarmed civilians, it seems that the government and responsible key personnel of the government are behaving like children without taking responsibility for what was happening in the country. The public statement of the Defence Secretary in front of the St Anthony’s Church, Kochchikade in Colombo to a foreign correspondent was the strong evidence that the government has no responsibility towards it people as well as towards international people. Modern states are responsible not only to an individual country but it also responds to the globe.
Another vital report recorded in Sri Lanka was that Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka stated to foreign journalists that ISIS is a foreign organization and joining to such an international criminal organization is not illegal in terms of the laws of Sri Lanka. Is Mr. Wickramasinghe, the prime minister of Sri Lanka talking to the world as a responsible person or a person with a conscious mind? It is a reason to shame on entire people, who were born in Sri Lanka that the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka is a stupid and irresponsible person. People of Sri Lanka did not vote to appoint him as the president and in the future, it should be same as it will be that Mr. Wickramasinghe or a member of his party must not be elected as the president of the country and it happens, people cannot imagine what will happen to the country.
ISIS is an international terrorist organization and becoming a member of this organization or a similar organization is a punishable offense. ISIS disguisedly associated with killing people, money laundering, terrorism, and many other criminal activities.
The other news item I noticed was that Mr. Wickramasignhe was questioning from foreign ministry official that why didn’t Sri Lanka sign the United Nations regulations of 2018 to eliminate World Terrorism? The regulations were approved by 77 countries in the world, why Sri Lanka refrained from such international activity. Mr. Mangala Samaraweera, Mr. Tilak Marapana and Mr. Ravi Karunanaya were foreign ministers in Sri Lanka from 2015 and why did they act irresponsibly.
The position Sri Lanka confronts today as a nation clearly is a case of electing political apologist of terrorism to power before the nation could recover completely from 30 years of terrorism. Ranil Wickremesinghe, like his current political mentor Chandrika Kumaranatunge, were such avowed supporters of the theory of ‘appeasing terrorist to win them over’ to a point where they ridiculed even the attempts of the country’s armed forces to overcome terrorism. An a result they were both responsible, during their tenures, in lengthening the period Sri Lanka would suffer under terrorism. The one hope that many shared when electing Ranil to power in 2015(to a minority Parliament) is that, ‘now that the terrorism is out of the way, bring us economic salvation and the rule of law’. But Ranil Wickremesinghe has not only failed to delivered but has proved that a leader who has no vision on national security does not deserve to be in power.
The attitude of both these leaders, Ranil and Chandrika, has been, when cautioned on threats to national security, is to counter charge the very messenger of being ‘an Extremist’ (Jathiwadi)’. To prove this point we have to reminiscent how Ranil reacted at instances which implied some form a threat to the country’s national security during the last 4 years. In all those instances, if the warning came from the opposition he would labelled the one who brought it to ntice as an extremist thinker by labelling a ‘Jathiwadi mentor’ taking the moral highgroungd of a man above petty tribalism.On the other hand if the perceived threats emenated from within his own officers his attitude had been to dismiss the same as being too overzealous. In conducting the affairs of the current regime, Ranil indulgd in a lot of wishful thinking by publicly declaring that , ‘This country will never face the type of war we had for thirty years’ without admitting that his pursuit of peace during that 30 year conflict was not just a complete failure but an antithesis in obtaining peace. Therefore, Ranil’s excuse that the intelligent information on the pending attack was not presented to him peronally was mainly due to his own negative attitude towards such information and his ire towards those who present such information.
The national security of a small nation like Sri Lanka, in the context of international politics and big power rivalry to dominate world and its economy, depend very much on that ntions ability to stay clear of big power shenanigans maintaining its own interest at heart. Global imperialism works in so many ways and so many guises. It needs a lot of rationality in your thinking to realize that global imperialism has evolved today to psychological subjugation replacing armed subjugation. World nations, especially the big powers, only have interests and hardly any principles. But Ranil, with his compacent servility to internationalism will always chose to dismiss anything national as ‘misplaced bigotry’.
Modern civilization, with all its personal rights and values, have not not been succesfu in making the man give up his innate need to dominate his kind. Religious domination is more deadlier than political domination because religions promise dividends for devotion and commitment only in the after life. As a result some religions have become ‘death cults’for its followers because they believe that any means, including indiscriminate violence, could be justified to achieve their after life goals. In such a context it is naïve to believe that the interests of different religious and tribal groups present in Sri Lanka, with their international agenda’s, ceases at the point of national interest.
In the democratic setup politicians are ‘vote greedy’ and Ranil Wickremesinghe is a spychphant who believes in the votes of the minoritie to a point of neglecting the interest of the majority. Former Chairman of the UNP Mr. Panditharatne resigned from his post in 1999 citing the current leadership’s minority inclination as the reason for UNP’s failure to win the Presidential elections in 1999. The preeption of the UNP leadership has not not changed since then and in such a context it is difficult to expect Ranil to keep the minorities in their places and then to lose their votes. Especially with the target of achieving his life long ambition to be the President of Sri Lanka at the forthcoming election in 2020.
The Catholic and Christian vote base in Sri Lanka has traditionally been the pocket borough of the UNP. They probably considered the less suave SLFP to be too nationalistic. The lesson now however, is that a leader who is more internationalised to a point iof disregarding the national interest can not be expeted to protect a minority when he is unable to protect the nation as a whole. Thus with Ranil Wickremesinghe at the top, the future for a vulnerable nation like Sri Lanka, with apologist of extremism bound to reign supreme, appears bleak.
There are ample historic records which describe vividly the atrocities committed by Muslims against millions of Buddhists in several countries. Their criminality has not subsided despite their living among other religions in different countries. Buddhists have been the most victimized and harassed religious community in the world, owing to actions of Muslims guided by their theistic traditions and beliefs. Buddhists cannot consider Islam as a religion of compassion and peace. Those professing Islam have been the biggest enemies of Buddhists and Buddhism throughout history. Before the onslaught of Islam, Buddhism was the religion of almost the whole of Asia – ancient countries/regions such as Bactria, Parthia, Afghanistan, Gandhar, Chinese Turkestan, along with Tibet and Inner Mongolia were Buddhist nations that formed almost the whole of the Asian continent. Buddhism was the dominant religion of the people of this vast area of the Asian continent. Islam destroyed and eliminated Buddhism from almost all these countries.
As far back as in the 10th century, as a result of the Muslim invasion of what is modern day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, the Buddhist religion which formed the basis of life of the people of this part of the world, was viciously wiped out in an act of virtual genocide. Muslim terror and atrocities have inflicted severe damage to Buddhism in many Asian countries, some of which were exclusively Buddhist at one stage in their histories. In some Asian countries indigenous Buddhist spiritual traditions have been severely weakened by decades of persecution. It is a well-known fact that Buddhism disappeared from India under the sword of Islam. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the great Indian Buddhist leader said that there is absolutely no doubt that the fall of Buddhism in India was due to the invasions of the Musalmans or the adherents of Islam. For about five hundred years, from the 13th to 17th centuries, most parts of South Asia especially the Indian subcontinent was under Muslim rule. During this period, over 50 million Buddhists and Hindus were massacred by Islamists in greater India which in the past included the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The destruction of the colossal Afghan Bahmian Buddha statues by fanatic Muslims, is not the first destruction resulting from Muslim fundamentalism. In the 12th century, Nalanda, the world’s first university, an illustrious Buddhist university located near ancient Rajagaha in Bihar, established in the 5th century, was demolished by Muslim fanatics. It flourished for seven centuries as one of the greatest centres of learning in the ancient world, attracting scholars from distant countries including China. Muslims burnt down its priceless library and mercilessly killed its scholars including Buddhist scholar monks. Islam destroyed Buddhist sites not only in India but wherever it went. Those conversant with global affairs, are aware of the fact that, especially in recent years, Muslims have become a curse to humanity, resorting to violent and unethical means of serving their religious ends, or to ‘resolve’ their obsessive religion-based issues and self-created problems. Peace and harmony in many countries in the East and West have been impaired greatly owing to unwholesome actions of Muslim religious fanatics. In recent decades Muslim extremism and violence against Buddhists were well evident in Myanmar, Southern Thailand and Bangladesh.
During the last few decades, Muslims have gained increased strength in Sri Lanka increased economic power largely owing to favorable opportunities and privileges made available to them, including local political patronage. In recent decades, all prominent political leaders of Sri Lanka, have offered them undue patronage and privileges especially in view of expanding their vote-base, and to serve their political self-interests.
Madrasas
In recent decades, Muslims of Sri Lanka have received increased tangible and moral support from Muslim Middle Eastern countries to promote Islamic religious ideology in Sri Lanka. This led to the establishment of the so-called madrasas, initially in predominantly Muslim areas and later elsewhere in the country. Madrasas are exclusively Muslim schools funded by Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia in particular, to promote fundamentals of Islam, Islamic Sharia law and the Wahhabi form of Islam. Madrasas as educational institutions are said to offer instructions in Islamic subjects including but not limited to the Quran. It also includes Jurisprudence or figh” and Muslim law or Sharia Law and the teaching and practice of sufi” which encompasses Islamic mysticism. If Muslim Sharia law is given official recognition by means of registering Madrasas as NGOs, it can result in serious legal problems in the future. There can be only one law in our country and that is a secular law which is applicable to all citizens irrespective of their ethnicity or religious affiliations. There is no need to introduce any other law, especially religious law such as Muslim Sharia Law, and cause problems in our country. It is known that Muslim Madrasas work in collaboration with other foreign Muslim organizations and Madrasas in providing vocational training for Muslim youth.
In these madrasas, the younger generation of Muslims are being brainwashed with extremist Islamic fundamentalism. It is reported that Madrasas provide Islamic extremism and militancy and are a recruiting ground for terrorism. It is widely reported that some Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders have obtained radical political views at Madrasas. Some Madrasas are recorded to be promoting a militant form of Islam and teach and train Muslim students to fight non-believers and stand against the moral standards of non-Muslim societies. The suicide bombers involved in the July 2005 London terror attack are said to have spent time in Pakistani Madrasas. The so-called fundamentals of ‘Islam’ that are widely propagated in madrasas have serious negative implications as far as the national culture and the rule of law of the country are concerned. It is noteworthy that Madrasas have been banned in several non-Muslim countries. In recent years, Saudi Arabia is funding the establishment of a massive Muslim university in Eastern Sri Lanka in order to promote Islamic religious ideology.
In some countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Muslims are among the most deprived communities in terms of education and therefore establishment of certain type of Madrasas for basic educational purposes has become necessary and most people find them to be affordable as compared to other educational institutions in these countries. This is not the case in Sri Lanka where there is no educational deprivation or backwardness as far as the Muslims are concerned. In fact, our school system is open to all Muslims if they wish to attend them, and there are many Muslim students attending regular schools in Sri Lanka. Also, there are exclusively Muslim national schools in Sri Lanka and importantly, most international schools in the country are owned and operated by Muslims where Muslim students predominate. This divisive spirit of Muslims is owing to the influence of Islamic teachings to keep away from non-Muslims who are considered as inferior to Muslims. The Koran forbids Muslims to closely associate non-Muslims. Islam has dualistic ethics with one rule for Muslims and one rule for non-believers and there is no exception to this rule. Why do Muslims cause disharmony and bring about conflicts and confrontational situations in all societies they infiltrate? Why? Buddhists need to be vigilant and need to initiate actions against the abuse of privileges, aggression and misdemeanor by Muslims.
Their new male and female attire display their desire to look different and to be exclusive and separate from the nation’s mainstream. This polarization tendency of the Islamic community is self-imposed. It is not because they feel marginalized. The so called Burqa outfit or the head covering of Muslim women have been banned in many countries including China, France, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Morocco, Tajikistan, Latvia, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Gabon. the Canadian province of Quebec and finally in Sri Lanka as well after the Muslim violence in April 2019, on Easter Sunday.
Inciting Violence Against Sri Lankan Buddhists
It was not long ago that Islamic fundamentalists and armed Muslim extremists were inciting violence against legitimate Buddhist activities in the Pottuvil region. Muslims were forcibly encroaching upon land that rightfully belonged to Buddhist temples on the southeast coast and demolished Buddhist archeological sites in the East. Also, the Sri Lanka Muslims Congress and several Islamic groups of our country had the impudence to oppose the construction of Buddha’s statues on the island’s southeastern coastal areas which contain Buddhist historic monuments and important archeological remains which are part of the cultural wealth of the nation. There were protests and demonstrations by Buddhists including many Buddhist monks, urging the Government to crack down on anti-Buddhist activities of Muslim extremists. In a memorandum submitted to the Buddha Sasana Ministry the protesters cited how the Islamic fundamentalists and armed Muslim extremists were inciting violence against legitimate Buddhist activities in the Pottuvil region. According to the Memorandum, the Muslims are forcibly taking land that rightfully belongs to Buddhist temples on the southeast coast.
Need to Protect Cultural Traditions of the Nation
As a nation with a historic cultural tradition that extends to over 2200 years, where freedom, compassion, tolerance and accommodation of people of all faiths and ethnicities have been the founding principles, it is necessary that we as a nation take necessary steps to protect and preserve these noble and wholesome cultural traditions. We cannot allow them to be undermined under any circumstances.
Those deeply concerned about the need to preserve the quality and character of our nation, built on a sound Buddhist spiritual foundation, should be deeply grateful to patriotic organizations such as the Bodu Bala Sena among several others countrywide, for their bold and commendable initiatives to bring about increased awareness on the deceitful under-handed activities of extremist Muslims to undermine the Buddhist identity of the nation and to propagate archaic and fanatic Muslim fundamentalist customs and lifestyles in the country that are inconsistent with and contradictory to the Buddhist norms and principles upon which our nation is founded.
Rapid Increase of Wahhabi Influence
Sufism has been for centuries, the predominant form of Islam in Sri Lanka. It was a peaceful form of Islam which enabled cordial relations with people of other faiths. Wahhabi Jihadism is an extremist, fundamentalist form of Islam followed in Saudi Arabia. Oil rich Saudi Arabia began to influence Sri Lanka’s Sufi adherents starting in the 1970′s. With increased funding by the Saudi Arabia with their petro dollars, and other forms of penetration, the Wahhabi followers have increased in Sri Lanka during recent decades. This was clearly evident in the Eastern province. Wahhabis claim that the Sufis or the moderate Sri Lankan Muslims are ignorant of the basic teachings and practices in Islam. They claim to be the real scholars of Islam. This has led to sectarian clashes among peace loving Sri Lankan Muslims. There appears to be an increasing trend in this unruly behaviour pattern of some sections of the Muslim community, in the East and elsewhere where they predominate. It is a fact that there is a rising trend of Wahhabi Jihadism in Sri Lanka. Wahhabi fundamentalism has advanced so quickly in Sri Lanka partly because the House of Saud has financed the building of many madrasas and Mosques.
Scholarships are offered to Muslim youths to go to Wahhabi institutions in Saudi Arabia and Egypt with the condition that those who complete their Wahhabi studies should return to Sri Lanka and propagate Wahhabism. This is happening extensively. Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other Wahhabi terrorist groups. Saudi Arabia spends 87 billion US dollar per year to spread Wahhabism world-wide. Wahhabis are trying to take the peaceful Islamic community in Sri Lanka down the path of extremism and violence. The Wahhabis have already created deep divisions in among Sri Lankan Muslims and have formed gangs that intimidate moderate Muslims who speak out against Wahhabi fanatics. Like the Christian fundamentalist groups using NGOs to convert innocent poor families to Christianity, Wahhabis help poor Muslim families by providing cash and other material benefits to convert them to their cult. Wahhabis appear to be using Sri Lankan Government agencies to propagate Wahhabi activities.
During the last two decades, many Sri Lankan Muslims both male and female, found employment in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries and were strongly influenced by Wahhabism. It is a fact that there has been a significant increase of Wahhabi followers in Sri Lanka in recent years and this trend is clear in the Eastern and Northwestern provinces. Also, many young Sri Lankan Muslims were awarded scholarships by Saudi Arabia to study Wahhabism in Saudi universities. Upon their return to Sri Lanka they undertook in an organized manner the propagation of the ideology of Wahhabism. They were instrumental in the establishment of numerous madrasas where young Muslims were subject to various forms of brainwashing on Wahhabism including the jihad approach. This Islamic fundamentalism brought about by Wahhabism began to cause communal polarisation in Sri Lanka, like in all other southern Asian countries. In India, the trend of increasing radicalisation of Indian Muslims owing to Wahhabism has become a serious national security issue. The growth of radical Islamist streams became visible only in the past two decades. Wahhabism calls for Jihad, or war against infidels, or non-believers of Islam
Wahhabism is a new politico-religious movement that has been sweeping the predominantly Muslim occupied areas of the country such as the Eastern and Northwestern provinces of Sri Lanka. Their overall objective is to propagate the movement throughout Sri Lanka and has raced ahead and taken control of the Jihadist and Al Fatah groups in Sri Lanka under their wings. Through the lavish inflow of Saudi money into Sri Lanka Wahhabis has overtaken other Islamic organizations by threats, intimidation, and coercion. Wahhabism has been encroaching Sri Lanka without any form of resistance from the governments of the day. Operating through a movement called Thawheed hugely funded by Saudi Arabian sources, and through NGOs such as Al Haj Adul Jawad Alim Valiyullah Trust, Wahhabis established itself fully in Sri Lanka. They have established many new mosques and madrasas” in many locations’ Sri Lanka. Saudi agents have successfully penetrated Sri Lankan Muslims social fabric and have managed to defeat the Sufism in their game. Due to the training afforded by the House of Saud now the Wahhabis have prevailed over the Sufis. The Muslims in Sri Lanka have been subdued due to the Wahhabi influence while Buddhists have been agitating for the release of Rizana Naffek – teenage housemaid from Muthur who was sentenced to death by a Wahhabi Sharia Court in Saudi Arabia.
Wahhabism in Sri Lanka is headquartered in Kattankudi is a new politico-religious movement that is sweeping the Eastern province of Sri Lanka with more than sixty Muslim Wahhabi organizations helping in propagating the movement throughout Sri Lanka and has raced ahead and taken control of the Jihadist and Al Fatah groups in Sri Lanka under their wings. Wahhabism is imported and planted in the midst of peace-loving Muslims in Sri Lanka, mostly through the lavish inflow of Saudi money pumped into Sri Lanka has overtaken other Islamic organizations by threats, intimidation and coercion. Clashes between Sufis and Wahhabi Muslims in Kattankudi and Oddamavadi have been regular occurrence in the past few decades. Many homes of Sufi followers were burnt down by Wahhabi Jihadists in Kattankudi during similar clashes occurred in October 2004. In Kattankudi, the hatred between Wahhabis and Sufis has widened in the last few years and has grown in intensity, left many injured, and caused damage to several houses and vehicles.
All the ‘Islamist’ terror attacks in South Asia including in Mumbai, Afghanistan and Pakistan had the hallmarks of Wahhabism. Wahhabi Jihadists are blinded by faith to believe that they have the mandate of Allah to rid the world of ‘infidels’ and ‘heretics. Until this Wahhabism is thoroughly discredited, combating Wahhabi terrorism is impossible. Since the Western countries subterfuge to destabilise Sri Lanka, by surreptitiously supporting the LTTE failed, now the Western countries will promote Wahhabi Jihadism to cause strife and trouble to destabilize Sri Lanka. Wahhabi followers – al-Qaida, Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other Wahhabi terrorist groups – have caused untold misery in several countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Sri Lanka appears to be their next target. The Sri Lankan government must take immediate strict measures to control Wahhabi organizations and ban them. Wahhabis have already built several illegal Mosques in Sri Lanka using Saudi Arabia’s petro dollar. The overwhelming peace loving, tolerant and intensely patriotic Muslims of Sri Lanka would extend their support to the government in this matter. As the Wahhabis are even capable of starting ethnic riots between the peaceful Sinhala people and the Muslims, the Sri Lankan government must not be lethargic on this matter. The Government authorities must investigate every Wahhabi school and propagandist in the Eastern Province to make sure they are not preaching things that are inimical to Sri Lanka. Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other Wahhabi terrorist groups. Saudi Arabia spends 87 billion US dollar per year to spread Wahhabism world-wide. Wahhabis have infiltrated Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC). Almost all the participants and staffers in the Muslim section of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation are Wahabis and use the State radio to propagate Wahhabism. Not only Wahhabis run private unlicensed radio stations in the Eastern Province, also armed Wahhabis often attack mosques and leaders of the Sufi sect.
Dr. Daya Hewapathirane
The incompetent Prime Minster quite correctly stated that returnees from Syria could not be punished sufficiently as the law does not cover it. As per the current Sri Lanka law, they have committed no grave crime. However, can the people and the nation rely solely on the law and legal means to save themselves? No. Lives, limbs and property are far more valuable than being politically correct or legally correct. National security must use legal and extra-legal means to ensure public security. Otherwise the terror that grips the nation today, the impending economic collapse and political instability will be here to stay.
Laws Lag Behind
The above example is just one. There are plenty of others. The law simply doesn’t change as fast as terrorists change their tactics. Lawmakers in Sri Lanka are hardly the smartest. Therefore, one cannot expect them to foresee future threats and make laws. Thirdly, there are those who oppose tough laws that may interfere with human rights. All this means the law is far from capable of ensuring public security.
Implementation of the Law is Inefficient
Even if the law was perfect, not all terrorists can be nabbed going by the law. The process is highly inefficient, riddled with obstacles (including reconciliation) and can be twisted by corruption and collusion. Even if this process is perfect and all terrorists are produced before court, there is no guarantee they will be punished and they will not engage in terrorism operating within the safety of the prison.
Countries like USA, UK, etc. use outside jurisdictions to punish terrorist suspects where US human rights don’t apply. Gitmo Bay is one such place. Some suspects were transported to Pakistan and Algeria to be handled tough. They are entitled to a high degree of human rights in the US and the EU.
Overcoming the Threat Sustainably
Given these facts, the only way to sustainably overcome terrorism is to exterminate terrorists and potential terrorists. Sri Lanka has plenty of evidence of this method’s success in 1971, 1989 and 2009. It not only save the innocents from acts of terrorism; it also prevents indoctrination of others. Sri Lanka was chosen by a global terrorist network because its security was weak. Even if the terrorists are caught, they can still operate either from their homes (as they will be released) or even from prisons. Extermination of terrorists and potential terrorists force them to think twice.
Nonsensical Solutions
Some writers unaffected by terrorism and mostly living outside Sri Lanka have proposed nonsensical solutions based on religious philosophies. They look cute on paper but murderous in reality. Peace didn’t dawn on Sri Lanka from JVP and LTTE terror using any of this dogmatic nonsense. It was a process of extermination that brought peace.
When they join with political parties, a toxic and dangerous mixture is created.
Horror Truth – Sri Lanka Does Nothing to Ensure Public Security Than Recover Terror Material
So far, the military has done nothing to ensure public security in the long term! A number of explosives were recovered. However, this has been happening for years. There is no difference in what the military did in January 2019 and what it does today. No terrorist or potential terrorist was killed, abducted or otherwise eliminated.
Sadly, this means the threat is not affected at all by military operations. Terrorists get to fight another day and they will.
Terrorism of any type, destroying human life & property, deserves Zero Tolerance.
A three decades of death & destruction by the Tamil Tiger Terrorists LTTE ended by the Leadership of President Rajapaksa & Defence Secretary Gothabhaya Rajapaksa.
Sri Lanka suffered the thirty years of a dirty war, supported by several foreign governments, led by Velupillai Prabhakaran, aided by the likes of Erik Solheim of Norway.
A leading question is, What were the political and economic involvement of the current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with the stalwarts of LTTE?
Now under the watch of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesingha, an Act of Terrorism repeats, which begs to ask multiple questions.
The bottom line is that, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesingha, Failed as a Leader to prevent this horrid atrocity, described by many, as the Second 9/11.
In one fell sweep, Sri Lanka’s main Bread & Butter economy of foreign tourism, was blown to smithereens along with hundreds of innocent lives, including children.
The President of Sri Lanka might claim anything he wants in terms of excuses, blaming others for his negligence and inept incompetence.
If both the President and the Prime Minister, have an inkling of Self Respect and Honour, both should Tender their Resignations, and make way for Regime Change.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasingha is a “Has Been” Failure from the start. A pawn of the Indians and other Western Governments.
President My3 Sirisena was a puppet forwarded by a combined joint political force to displace the Rajapaksa Government.
President Sirisena should now demand the Resignation of the Wickremesingha Government, forthwith, and let the Voters of Sri Lanka to decide whom they wish to be led by.
Thereafter, President Sirisena should make-way to hold a Presidential Election, and let the people of Sri Lanka be allowed to exercise their Democratic Right.
President Sirisena may not have the education, experience to Act as a Leader, but hopefully, as an honourable man, he may give way to Democracy.
Sri Lanka cannot fall into another Terrorist Trap, now led by Muslim-Islamic Terror of ISIS / Al Qaeda.
It is crystal clear that the Planning & Implementation of the Easter Sunday Massacre, had direct/indirect Links to external sources.
Generally Muslims in Sri Lanka, have contributed to the economic & cultural well-being of the Island, unlike the Tamils who supported the LTTE, in collusion with Tamil Nadu of India.
Number one Priority Today is – National Security.
A Secure Sri Lanka will allow the Return of the Tourism.
This is an Urgent Desperate Disease.
And Demands an Equally Desperate Remedy.
Sri Lanka needs a National Leader with Vision & a Back-bone!
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In its efforts to complete investigations into the Easter Day carnage and to revamp the national intelligence services the Government is obviously seeking the assistance of the FBI and other similar organizations in the West and India. The government should first draw up suitable guidelines when seeking such advise to prevent the situation drifting from bad to worse. Or, it should not turn out to be another case of returning ginger and replacing same with chilies. When USA is bent on leading the international drive against Islamic Terrorism with little success and much destruction , Sri Lanka should consider not to be a direct partner for such a venture as Sri Lanka will end up as a center for continuous circle of violence. Further, if the FBI recommends inviting of the US armed personnel to Sri Lanka, it is bound to have political repercussions similar to some of the Middle Eastern countries and Latin American countries where the US forces play a decisive role.
Sri Lanka’s stable future lies on strict adherence to non-aligned policies.
Sri Lankan government should be honest and admit the mistakes made in the intelligence establishment and reinstate the officers now in prison and on bail without being prosecuted and revamp the organization giving them the required independence to carry out their crucial tasks. The government’s policy of disrupting the intelligence services have resulted in over 300 deaths and 500 injured civilians. Foreign advise can be obtained including the Russian and the Chinese and the Singaporean in the revamping but the experienced Sri Lankans should lead. Finally Sri Lanka should not be a place, to station foreign forces.
RANJITH SOYSA
It is often asked why educated youth coming from good homes” join extremist organizations. Simple references to brain washing”, or the stupidity of the young are no explanations. There is no scientifically recognized process called brain washing”. It is also naive to assume that educated youth join the IS (Islamic state) to go to heaven and get their 21 virgins! Many youth radicalized in British Universities ended up fighting for the ISIS. At least one of the Sri Lankan Muslim Kamikazi had a British training, had four children, a flourishing business and lived in a million dollar home in Colombo. A British education in a narrow subject like information technology” not touching any broad scientific or cultural subjects, given in a British red Brick” university can have no effect on already acquired belief systems. Don’t our most educated” ministers go to Tirupathi, India, at the drop of a pin?
These radicals are no different from the young intellectuals of an earlier generation who believed in a simplistic theory of capitalists versus the workers, and how the workers would unite to bring down the capitalists and create a classless society where even state power has disappeared! They believed that “THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS” – so we had Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung, countless Left-Terrorist Maoist-Guevarist-Naxalite groups, and Wijeweera’s JVP in Sri Lanka killing innocents to achieve their “objective”. This objective is given a historical destiny by dialectical materialism formulated as historical materialism”. Contrary to the predictions of historical materialism, these movements have only produced ghoulish Gulags.
Similarly, these brain-washed” young Muslims are educated in the Islamic fundamentalist view of the world consisting of Muslims (good), and infidels (bad). Many educated Arabs do not believe that the 9/11 World Trade Center attack was done by Arab Kamikazes. They think it was a put-up job by Jewish groups and the Bush government to give them an excuse to attack the Oil Rich Middle Eastern countries on the economic front, and to relaunch the Crusades against Islam. This is the rationale for the counter-attack on luxury hotels frequented by Westerners, and on Christian Churches.
Just as Dialectical materialism calls for a revolution leading to a necessary final state which is an article of faith of Marxists, Islam defines that history must necessarily lead to the Islamic state after a Jihadic step. The “holy war” replaces the revolution of the Red Comrade. The historical destiny taught to young Muslims by impassioned Arabic Teachers who have come from the Middle East is as simple and clear as the JVP five lessons. Their role is to establish the Islamic State, with everyone practicing the Sharia law which encompasses not only morality, but economic activity as well – a complete ideology is sold.
Just as many Sri Lankans, or even ministers are over-whelmed enough to readily accept ideas cooked up in the West, because they are from the West, these young people are also over-whelmed by “renowned” and fiery teachers from the Middle East who paint a glorious picture of the old Caliphate. The idealistic young Muslim has a clear jihadist mission, taught to him by these fundamentalist “international teachers”. Achieving this designated noble cause, the Islamic Caliphate in the name of Allah becomes their mission. Achieving this END is justified by ANY means whatever. It is a sacrifice that they make, in much the same way as “rathu sahodarayas” (red comrades) are ready to fight the capitalist army and die in the process of the revolutionary capture of the state by the “working class”.
The young university students who readily absorbed the “five lessons” of the JVP, although almost stupid in content, attempted to overthrow the legitimate government because the message fitted in with their pre-conceived notions. These notions were about the need to change the economic framework by “hook or crook”, hammered into the Sri Lankan youth by the LSSP and CP politicians who came prior to the JVP. The tremendous disparity between their power and state power seemed irrelevant to a just cause.
The early Marxists in Sri Lanka had fomented the trade unions to rise in militant “hartals”, hoping to capture power. They were sure of being the “Bolsheviks” who will replace the “Menshevick” government of Bandaranaike. So, the LSSP, a revolutionary party did not worry about popularity at the polls. Dr. Osmond Jayaratne, and Engineer C. B. Wijedoru, both central committee members of the LSSP assured me that Language Parity was a policy strategically crafted to the revolution using unions with more than 50% Tamils, and not designed for elections. When they abandoned the “revolution” and joined Mrs. Bandaranaike, they jettisoned parity and embraced the majority language, as one language is more efficient for the classless, divisionless, unethnic communist state.
In the case of the radicalized young Muslims, they too hope to change what they see is an utterly immoral world. The world must conform to the draconian morality taught to them by the fundamentalist Arab teachers. Martin Luther had found such a moralistic message xplosively successful in an earlier era. These young people find an outlet to their moral and idealistic energy, and an identity thorough these extremist organizations. Their parent’s society has failed to provide them with valid idealistic objectives suitable to the 21st century, and allowed extremist teachers to infect them with a new passion. This process is not brain washing”, but more analogous to the spread of an infection of virulent memes.
The Ilanaki Tamize Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) declared in 1949 that the Ceylon Tamils – a mere 10% of the population – must have an exclusive homeland” in Ceylon, and that their struggle is to establish their own Raj where they will manage their own affairs”. The leaders were wealthy upper-caste” land owners of the North, but living in Southern Ceylon, and in the best parts of Colombo. They blamed the southern politicians (them excluded) for all the problems of the North. This was an an inflammatory, racist and exclusive ideology crafted to attract the fervour of the youth, with some of its leaders identifying with the Chola empire. The move towards Swabasha with the cry of Sinhala ONLY became fuel for further polarization. By a strange twist of history, Vaddukkoddai, a town named ‘Batakotte’ till the dawn of the 20th century because it was a Sinhalese garrison town against Chola invasions, was the venu of the Vaddukoddai resolution. It called for separatist armed struggles to achieve Eelam”, the ethnically exclusive Tamil homeland.
Educated Tamil parents with liberal values could not understand why their well educated children joined violent Eelamist racist movements. In the end the parents themselves were infected by the same bug, when the majority reaction erupted into a horrific pogrom in 1983, and escalated into brutal war. Notably, Jeyaratnam Wilson’s political writings had evolved from its empirical approach to a separatist stance within a dozen years, moving to support a view of Sri Lankan history about Tamil homelands that he would have vehemently rejected in an earlier decade.
The same phenomenon exists in the highly literate world of Judaism. The young fundamentalist Jews in Israel fight and kill to build Zion. They too are driven by an utterly medieval, jingoist Judaism that underpins Likud ideology. The moral right” of the Zion or the Caliphate, the dialectical necessity of the communist state, or the rights of an Eelamist historical claim, these overshadow mere human rights or, say, Palestinian claims to existence. Leaders of Zionist terror organizations like the IRGUN, e.g., Menachem Begin and Benjamin Natanyahu, became prime minsters with US support. Another terrorist group, LEHI, proclaimed that the Armed struggle is the duty of all Israel; every Jew has to be a warrior. Religion … raises the armed struggle to a ritual above any other facet of human endeavour. Hallelujah with machine guns”! The Zionist terror, at first directed against the British, was later directed against the Palestinians who suffer enormous aggression but remain protected from the UNHRC by the Western powers. A more just British policy could have produced co-existence between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Palestinians have mounted equally horrific counter-terror groups like the Hezbollah who are funded by the Arab states. All these terror organizations easily recruit their educated youth to engage in terror. A leader of the LEHI, Yitzhak Shamir served as a prime minister of Israel. The end justifies the use of violent means for those in the faith.
The Zionist terrorist movements against the British arose during a time when Nazism with its credo of violence arose in Europe, misrepresenting Drawinian evolution and using it as a theoretical underpinning. This misrepresentation of Darwin, initiated by literary men like Tenyson who pictured nature as being red in Tooth and Claw”, is scientifically incorrect. Darwinian evolution works when a large number of genes and cells COOPERATE to take advantage of fitness landscapes, and not when acting by competition. I have discussed this at length in my book A Physicist’s view of Matter and Mind (World Scientific), Chapter 3” and elsewhere in that book.
Dr. Jane Russell, in her ever topical, sadly no longer available book Communal Politics Under the Donoughmore Constitution, 1931-1947 (Tisara Publishers) ” writes that nationalist leaders like SWRD Bandaranaike and GG Ponnambalam were glowingly referred to as pocket Hitlers” by their respective admirers in the two ethnic camps. Prabhakaran with his Child soldiers wearing Cyanide capsules graduating into Kamikaza cadre was the final product of one such nationalism. Its Hindu ideology, nourished in ultra-conservative Jaffna Christianity makes Shiva into a destroyer and the Christian God into a partisan Shiva.
Societies that fail to provide for the idealism and rebelliousness of youth through opportunity in adventure, in the arts, sciences and professions become the theater of extremist ideologies. Just as young plants need protection against insects, weeds and extremes of weather during their early growth, young nations need protection. Even flourishing open societies” cannot allow subversive forces supported by external money to crush the traditional structures in their societies.
Sri Lanka had evolved a compassionate society that gave refuge to all faiths since Asokan times, with near equality to women and lower castes”, when compared with other ancient societies. No heretics were burnt. The END, however desirable, could not justify THE MEANS used to achieve the end, since the righteous path was the essential element of Buddhist and Jain doctrines, and in forms of Hinduism that evolved under teachers like Nagarjuna. Lanka’s rulers gave asylum to Catholics and Muslims in the face of Dutch-Lutheran repression. More recently, the nation’s ancient wholesome values were jettisoned in favour of virulent doctrines coming from the political left, and from the political right which uses religion to anchor its claims.
The Irish and Tamil diaspora fed and fomented the Irish and LTTE violence. The US and its NGOs feed and foment disaster capitalism in young nations and interfere with their elections by propping up US favorites. In such operations, the ‘manifest destiny of the US’ overshadows all human rights. Similarly, the fundamentalist oil sheiks build Mosques, Madarassis and push fundamentalist agendas causing dissension in Myanmar, Sri Lanka or elsewhere, while heaping the blame on the intolerance” of the majority community. These ideologies reject dissent and open discussion. They threaten to eliminate the other by force.
But many politicians, tempted by money and influence, allow the camel into the tent, and then it is too late.
Chandre Dharmawardana , chandre.dharma@yahoo.ca
President Maithripala Sirisena says he would not excuse himself from the lapse on the part of intelligence information sharing and the government should bear the responsibility for failing to prevent the attacks on Easter Sunday.
The President stated this addressing the Heads of media institutes today (26).
Stating that a major search operation has been undertaken and every household in the country will be checked, the President said lists of permanent residents of every house will be established to ensure no unknown persons could live anywhere. He pointed out that during the fight against LTTE terrorism, similar methods were adapted.
On 4th of April, an intelligence agency letter from a friendly foreign country sent on April 4, warning about possible attacks, however, he was not notified of this, the President says. He blamed on the weakening of military intelligence forces and needless imprisonment and suppression of military officers as the main reasons for the lapse.
President says this intelligence information had been received by the IGP, the Defence Secretary and five other DIGs of Police, yet only one of them acted on it. President commended DIG Priyalal Dassanayake, in charge of Colombo’s special security division, for fulfilling his duty by notifying the relevant authorities in this regard.
The President had left for India on April 16th for a personal visit and then for Singapore. This letter containing intelligence information on the attacks had whirled around only between the IGP and the Defence Secretary from 4th to 16th of April. Yet, neither of them had let him in on the relevant letter prior to his departure to India, claims the President. President Sirisena says he was slated to return to the country on April 21st after concluding his personal foreign tours. The President says learned of the Easter Day attacks through social media and that the authorities failed to inform him.
IGP and the Defence Secretary have neglected their responsibilities by failing to at least telephone him to impart this piece of information, the President accused. President Sirisena added that the IGP and the Defence Secretary had visited him on April 14th to greet him for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, yet they had not mentioned anything concerning the intelligence information even at that encounter.
He says that he believes the IGP would resign during the course of the day and that a new Defence Secretary would be appointed to the already vacated position by Hemasiri Fernando. The IGP was not able to respond when confronted at the Security Council on April 22nd regarding who is to be held accountable for this unfortunate situation, the President further says.
Addressing the press conference, the President urged all Sri Lankans not to look at the entire Muslim community as terrorists. ‘There is an ample link between religious extremism and drug trafficking in the world. It is possible that the attacks hastened due to the drug eradication programme carried out by me,’ he stated.
Speaking on the ongoing investigations and search operations, the President stated that at least 70 suspects have so far been arrested in connection with the attacks. However, information was received that there are 130-140 persons in the country with links to the Islamic State, he added.
The security forces are expediting investigations to arrest these suspects, while a group of experts has also arrived in the country to provide assistance in this regard. President ensured that he would take all the necessary measures to wipe out terrorism from the country.
Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, said on Friday he would run for president in elections this year and would stop the spread of Islamist extremism by rebuilding the intelligence service and surveilling citizens.
More than 250 people were killed in bomb attacks on hotels and churches on Easter Sunday that the government has blamed on Islamist militants and that Islamic State has claimed responsibility for.
Gotabaya said the attacks could have been prevented if the island’s current government had not dismantled the intelligence network and extensive surveillance capabilities that he built up during the war and later on.
Because the government was not prepared, that’s why you see a panic situation,” he said in an interview with Reuters.
Gotabaya said he would be a candidate 100 percent”, firming up months of speculation that he plans to run in the elections, which are due by December.
He was critical of the government’s response to the bombings. Since the attacks, the government has struggled to provide clear information about how they were staged, who was behind them and how serious the threat is from Islamic State to the country.
Various people are blaming various people, not giving exactly the details as to what happened, even people expect the names, what organisation did this, and how they came up to this level, that explanation was not given,” he said.
On Friday, President Maithripala Sirisena said the government led by premier Ranil Wickremesinghe should take responsibility for the attacks and that prior information warning of attacks was not shared with him.
Wickremesinghe said earlier he was not advised about warnings that came from India’s spy service either, presenting a picture of a government still in disarray since the two leaders fell out last October.
Gotabaya is facing lawsuits in the United States, where he is a dual citizen, over his role in the war and afterwards.
The South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project, in partnership with U.S. law firm Hausfeld, filed a civil case in California this month against Gotabaya on behalf of a Tamil torture survivor.
In a separate case, Ahimsa Wickrematunga, the daughter of murdered investigative editor Lasantha Wickrematunga, filed a complaint for damages in the same U.S. District Court in California for allegedly instigating and authorising the extrajudicial killing of her father.
Gotabaya said the cases were baseless and only a little distraction” as he prepared for the election campaign. He said he had asked U.S. authorities to renounce his citizenship and that process was nearly done, clearing the way for his candidature.
‘DISMANTLE THE NETWORKS’
He said that if he won, his immediate focus would to be tackle the threat from radical Islam and to rebuild the security set-up.
It’s a serious problem, you have to go deep into the groups, dismantle the networks,” he said, adding he would give the military a mandate to collect intelligence from the ground and to mount surveillance of groups turning to extremism.
Gotabaya said that a military intelligence cell he had set up in 2011 of 5,000 people, some of them with Arabic language skills and that was tracking the bent towards extremist ideology some of the Islamist groups were taking in eastern Sri Lanka was disbanded by the current government.
They did not give priority to national security, there was a mix-up. They were talking about ethnic reconciliation, then they were talking about human rights issues, they were talking about individual freedoms,” he said.
President Sirisena’s government sought to forge reconciliation with minority Tamils and close the wounds of the war and launched investigations into allegations of rights abuse and torture against military officers.
Officials said many of these secret intelligence cells were disbanded because they faced allegations of abuse, including torture and extra judicial killings.
Source: Reuters
-Agencies
ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්ගේ පොලිස්පතිගේ කෙරුවාව,
මංගලලා රාජිතලාට අනුව මම ජාතිවාදියා ගෝත්රිකයා වුනා,
ඔවුන් අද මියගිය ජීවිතවල වගකීම බාර ගත යුතුයි.
බුද්ධි අංශ 44ක් හිරේ, හමුදාවේ පන නල කැඩුවා.
රටේ ඇමතිවරු දැනගෙන මිනිස්සුන්ට කිව්වේ නැහැ
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When will Sri Lankan learn?
It is laughable to note that ‘experts’ emerge after any conflict. So is the case with the last Sunday’s Diabolical bombing. In fact, this would have been the most catastrophic incident in Sri Lanka’s recent history where both locals and foreigners perished.
As expats have noted our country lacks professionalism in dealing with situations such as these. Partly it could be attributed to rigid, regimentalism in the form of bureaucracy which is ingrain in our officials and politicians, blindly following a PROCEDURE where there should be INSTANT action, through common sense. Every government administrator and security person in this country worry about the losing a pension on a flawed action or a flawed statement and in fact they work in fear of even being kicked out by a higher up in the ladder. as dirty politics rule the country.
The President talks about banning social media and at the same time he divulges how he got to know about the infamous letter” through social media, which has being hovering over the security personnel!
Lack of being Proactive rather than Reactive is another problem which is widespread in our Sri Lanka society.
An appropriate simile would be the role of Quality Control and Quality Assurance. The latter is the preventative step to be taken before anything happens so that QC testing will be superfluous. A complaint by a person of a threat is taken lightly by Police and NO action will be taken until the murder takes place. And that too should be instigated through lodging a complaint to initiate an investigation! This is a joke!
All these decades the Police never felt the need to take Preventative steps to avoid an ‘incident’.
This must change and must be inculcated to the psych of the Police personnel.
Another significant flaw in dealing with a situation is the lack of identifying priorities and jumping into action without giving much thought and bungling along the way. With a lot of experience gained with 30 years of a terrorist war, the security people should by now be in a position to assess a situation quickly and take appropriate actions swiftly.
One of the major flaws seeing in operations especially after the Sunday bombings was a lack of Control over an area – a swift cordon off an area under investigation. People are seen running around along with army and Police personnel, side by side with media personnel. The unfortunate incident of 3 officers being killed when the terrorist detonated the bomb while they were conducting a search was mostly unwarranted and which could have been avoided if more caution was taken deploying a number of security personnel. It was unbelievable to observe women running away from the scene, the house while the only capture was by cameras of media personnel!
Sunil Vijaya
Mastermind Zahran Hashim was killed in blast at Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, says Sirisena
Zahran Hashim, a radical Muslim preacher accused of masterminding the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, never hid his hatred.
He railed against a local performance in which Muslim girls dared to dance. When a Muslim politician held a 50th birthday party, he raged about how western infidel traditions were poisoning his hometown, Kattankudy.
In Colombo on Friday, Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said Hashim, the head of extremist group National Tawheed Jamath, died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel. Hashim led the attack on the hotel and was accompanied by a second bomber identified as Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim.
The President said the information came from military intelligence and was based in part on CCTV footage recovered from the scene.
There were, Hashim said in one of his online sermons, three types of people: Muslims, those who had reached an accord with Muslims, and people who need to be killed”.
Idolaters, he added, need to be slaughtered wherever you see them.” Hashim has been described by Sri Lankan officials as having founded an obscure group with inchoate aims: a defacement of a Buddha statue, a diatribe against Sufi mystics.
But in his hometown, and later in the online world of radical Islam where his sermons were popular with a segment of Sri Lankan youth, it was clear for years that Hashim’s hateful cadences were designed to lure a new generation of militants.
He was influential, very attractive, very smart in his speeches, even though what he was saying about jihad was crazy,” said Marzook Ahamed Lebbe, a former Kattankudy politician and member of a local Islamic federation. We all underestimated him. We never thought he would do what he said.”
The Easter Sunday attacks, which included suicide bombings of three churches and three luxury hotels, took at least 253 lives. Through its news agency, the Islamic State claimed the attackers as its fighters and released a video with Zahran appearing to be front and centre.
Standing among seven masked men in black, Hashim is the only one with his face exposed. Sri Lankan investigators believe that eight suicide bombers carried out the attacks on the hotels and churches on April 21, one of the bloodiest assaults ever claimed by the Islamic State.
Investigators said on Thursday that they believed Hashim was one of the two suicide bombers who targeted the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital. (The police have also identified him as Mohammed Zaharan.)
Muslims in Kattankudy said they had repeatedly contacted the police to warn that Zahran was dangerous, but that the authorities played down the threat.
Adding to questions about the government’s competence, the Sri Lankan authorities on Thursday vastly revised their earlier count of fatalities, saying that about 253 people had been killed as a result of the bombings, not 359.
One of the targeted churches — where more than 20 people were killed, many of them children — was in Batticaloa, a religiously mixed city just to the north of Kattankudy.
I cannot digest this, even if it was done by my own brother,” said Madaniya, Zahran’s sister, who lives in Kattankudy and who goes by one name. I strongly condemn this.”
Growing up in Kattankudy, an oasis of Islam on a majority Buddhist island with significant Hindu and Christian minorities, Hashim’s religiosity was unremarkable. Most houses here have a picture of Mecca on their wall, and road intersections are decorated with golden monuments in Arabic.
Hashim and his brothers were sent by their father, a small-time seed and spice seller, to a madarsa, where teachings adhered to a strict interpretation of Islam.
But even as he impressed with the fluency of his recitation and easily made friends, Hashim confronted his teachers and accused them of failing to adhere to true Islam.
Like other Kattankudy youth lured by new overseas fashions, he had come under the spell of foreign preachers whose sermons were being passed around town by DVD, said M.B.M. Fahim, one of his classmates and now a lecturer at the same madarsa.
He spread misinformation about us,” Fahim said. He said the school should close because it was teaching the wrong way. He was just a student and he was saying like this.”
Hashim was kicked out of school. He enrolled at another Islamic college but never graduated, his acquaintances said. Still, by listening to the sermons of charismatic but extremist preachers based in India and Malaysia, Hashim was honing his oratory.
He was a very good talker and a good researcher of how Islam was developing worldwide,” said M.L.M. Nassar, an administrator of a Kattankudy mosque federation.
Hashim was unafraid of taking on the powerful, a rarity in a society bound by respect for those richer or older.
He would criticise big shots, he would criticise anybody,” said Marzook, the former politician.
People were attracted to his lack of fear.”
After getting ejected from serving as imam of one mosque for his extremist views, aharan started a group in 2014 called National Tawheed Jamath, which drew from the austere Wahhabi tradition that claims to follow the faith as practiced in the age of its founder.
Hashim preached that the Sri Lankan national flag was a worthless piece of cloth, and that the country should be ruled by Shariah law — an unlikely outcome in a country where only about 10 per cent of the population is Muslim.
My impression was that it was preoccupied with outflanking other Wahhabi groups to attract Middle Eastern funding,” said Gehan Gunatilleke, a researcher who wrote about National Tawheed Jamath last year.
It was focused on symbolism and rhetoric.”
Hashim founded his own mosque with funding from India, according to members of a Kattankudy mosque association, even though Hashim’s mosque never received official religious certification.
Still, an Islamic school dropout with an unlicensed mosque was gaining followers in Sri Lanka and beyond.
Security forces in Sri Lanka were involved in a shootout — and seized bomb-making equipment as well as ISIS flags and uniforms — during sweeping raids within the country’s eastern region Friday, according to a new report.
https://nypost.com/2019/04/26/sri-lanka-raids-net-bomb-making-equipment-isis-flags/
The forces were searching for suspects linked to the Easter Sunday bombings that claimed about 253 lives when they found a cache of explosives at a home in Samanthurai, CNN reported.
In addition to the flags and uniforms, authorities found 50 sticks of the rock-blasting explosive Gelignite, 100,000 ball bearings and a drone camera, according to the report.
Three explosions were also reported in the city of Kalmunai, the outlet reported. Security forces got into a shootout with a suspected group there, Sri Lanka News outlet Nidahasa News tweeted.
The raids came after Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena ordered a major search operation during a Friday press conference.
Every household in the country will be checked,” Sirisena said. The lists of permanent residents of every house will be established to ensure no unknown persons could live anywhere.”
Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe previously told CNN that authorities were working to root out possible sleeper” cells who could launch even more attacks.
COLOMBO • A gun battle broke out between Sri Lankan police and a group of men during a raid on a house in an eastern Sri Lankan town yesterday, with the premises believed to have been used to make suicide vests for the Easter Sunday serial bombings in the country.
The raid took place in the town of Ampara Sainthamaruthu, near Batticaloa. A military spokesman said there was an explosion in the area and when soldiers went to investigate, they were fired upon.
No details of casualties were immediately available.
Britain’s Daily Mirror reported that after the battle was over, police recovered gelignite sticks and 100,000 metal bombs used in bomb-making and uniforms of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). A drone camera was also found at the scene.
Sri Lankan police are trying to track down 140 people believed linked to ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the bombings of churches and hotels, President Maithripala Sirisena said yesterday.
The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, told reporters he had seen a leaked internal security document warning of further attacks on churches and that there would be no Catholic masses tomorrow anywhere on the island.
The authorities dramatically revised the death toll in the attacks on Thursday from nearly 360 dead to 253. The revision came after the authorities said some victims had been “double-counted” because bodies were blown apart in the attacks and misidentified.
Sri Lanka’s top police official, Inspector-General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, has resigned over security failures that led to the deadly attacks, Mr Sirisena said yesterday.
The resignation came after the top defence ministry official, Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, resigned on Thursday.
Mr Sirisena also said yesterday that a major reorganisation of the security services would occur in the coming days.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday apologised to the nation for the failure to protect the victims of the blasts.
In a statement on his official twitter account, Mr Wickremesinghe said: “We take collective responsibility and apologise to our fellow citizens for our failure to protect victims of these tragic events.”
Armed police and sniffer dogs guarded mosques in Sri Lanka yesterday as Muslims trickled to Friday prayers, with many staying away amid fears of revenge attacks over the Easter suicide bombings carried out by Islamists.
Fears of retaliatory violence have already caused Muslim communities to flee their homes amid bomb scares, lockdowns and security sweeps.
Other Muslims have expressed fears that they could be targeted by Islamist hardliners after the community’s religious leadership said the attackers would not be buried at mosques in the country.
Some mosques cancelled prayers yesterday, and Sri Lanka’s Muslim Affairs Minister called on Muslims to pray at home instead, in solidarity with churches that have closed over security fears.
But at the Kollupitiya Jumma Masjid, hundreds defied the government calls to stay at home, attending a service they say was focused on a call for people of all religions to help return peace to Sri Lanka.
Among mosques that did hold prayers yesterday in the capital, Colombo, attendance was thin.
At Colombo’s 100-year old Jami Ul-Alfar mosque, worshippers were searched before entering and security forces cordoned off the surrounding blocks.
“I wanted to come to say my prayers for all the victims of this terrible killing, that God should welcome them in heaven,” said Mr Nizam Wellampitia, 81, a white-bearded cloth seller.
“Both Jesus and our Prophet said we should never harm others. We do not even like to kill a bird – the people who did this are brainwashed and they will go to hell.”
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS, WASHINGTON POST, XINHUA
A devastating series of eight bomb blasts ripped through churches holding Easter services and high-end hotels in Sri Lanka on 21 Apr 19, killing nearly 300 people, including dozens of foreigners and injuring nearly 500. International media especially that of India are in the forefront in reporting that a local Islamist extremist group called the National Tawheed Jamaath (NTJ) was behind the deadly suicide bomb attacks although no one has claimed responsibility.
Sri Lanka Tawheed Jamaath (SLTJ) is an associated arm of Indian Tamil Nadu Tawheed Jamaath (TNTJ). Other branches are in Middle East, US, UK, France and Australia. TNTJ is a non-political Islamic organization which was founded in 2004. TNTJ claims to preach Islam and is involved in social activities and encourages followers to observe peaceful protests. It held demonstrations and protests across Tamil Nadu several times on various issues including reconstruction of Babri Masjid, removal of liquor shops and load shedding. Hence, the organization and its subsidiaries do not have a pronounced history of terror activities.
Indian RAW’s involvement to destabilize neighbourhood of India is nothing new as it is part of a larger Indira Doctrine. One of the clauses of Indira Doctrine stated, India will not tolerate external intervention in a conflict situation in any South Asian country, if the intervention has any implicit or explicit anti-Indian implication. No South Asian government must, therefore, ask for external military assistance with an anti-Indian bias from any country”. The timing of promulgation of Indira Doctrine in early eighties coincided with the implosion of civil war within Sri Lanka which converted this beautiful tourist paradise into a hell hole for next three decades.
As of 2011 census, 70.2 % of Sri Lankans are Theravada Buddhists, 12.6% are Tamil Hindus, 9.7% are Muslims (mainly Sunni) and 7.4% Christians. Buddhism is the state religion of Sri Lanka. However, the country provides freedom of religion and right to equality amongst all its citizens. There is negligible religious dissention in Sri Lanka – unlike India.
According to a recent McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) study, Sri Lanka is amongst few countries that are well-prepared to rise amongst emerging markets in the next decade.
China’s role in Sri Lanka has grown remarkably in recent years. Recent developments have shown a pro-China” slant to Sri Lanka’s current foreign policy which is evident in the continued Chinese investment in Sri Lanka and the country’s support of China’s position in the Indo Pacific. Sri Lanka is an important country which is part of the Chinese strategic initiative in the Indian Ocean, known as the Maritime Silk Road and is part of the bigger development strategy known as the One Belt, One Road.
Sri Lanka’s emerging market is a matter of concern for India for obvious reasons. However, the China factor has put some other countries in an uncomfortable position too, including India. Indo-Pacific alliance and Quad comprising India, US, Australia and Japan has been created to contain China.
Pakistan maintains the best of relationship with Sri Lanka which encompass economic, security and diplomatic ties. The relationship also fosters on strong mutual Sino-Pakistan and Sino-Sri Lankan relationship. Relations are generally warm and have grown into strong ties during recent times. Pakistan was a key supplier of weapons and training to Sri Lanka’s military in its decades-long, bloody war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) that ended in May 2009. Even after this incidence, Pakistan has extended all out help and support to Sri Lanka.
Who could benefit from latest bombing Incident? Christchurch terror attack against Muslim community had greatly boosted the concept of Islamophobia and presented Muslims as target of Right Wing Neo Nazi groups; this narrative was not acceptable to Neo Cons, Neo Nazis, Israeli lobby as well as RSS backed Modi government. It is important to carry out an appraisal as to who could be the beneficiary of this attack. Following are some of the conclusion
It is prudent to look at this incidence in Sri Lanka in context with the massacre of Muslims that took place in Christchurch New Zealand recently. There has been a wide ranging sympathy for the Muslims across the world after Christchurch massacre. Such a compassion for Muslims was against the prevailing Islamic Terror narrative” of the West, India and Israel. Therefore, a balancing act was required to again push the Muslims in the swamp of terrorism that would foster hatred against Muslims.
Putting blame of Sri Lanka bombing on Muslims is also in line with the Modi’s anti-Muslim election campaign narrative that strengthens Modi and RSS rhetoric that Muslims are terrorists. No wonder Modi has started using it as an election slogan by asking the voters to vote for him as he is the strongman who can fight terror in the region. Use of ISIS Kerala and ISIS Bangladesh for fulfilling RAW’s evil designs and putting blame on Muslims in India and elsewhere also needs to be comprehended.
As the reports pour in from Sri Lanka, it is being highlighted that some of the suicide bombers came from affluent Muslims in Sri Lanka who had studied in UK and Australia, should this ring some alarm bells in London and Canberra, as to how these Muslim students were being radicalized. The ISIS enterprise being dismantled in Syria had lot of newly converted White Europeans as well as Muslim cadres from different part of the world. It is also suspected that Ajit Doval and RAW had tried hard to bring Syrian ISIS cadres into Afghanistan to create a new terror network against Pakistan, after they saw that Pakistan had dismantled the TTP network in its bordering areas with Afghanistan.
Unfortunately, infighting in Sri Lankan political leadership and some of their security institutions created a dangerous gap in surveillance system which allowed these ISIS terrorists to strike Sri Lanka at time and place of their choosing. As India claims that she had warned Sri Lankan leadership about impending terror attack, it may be noted that the leads were picked from Indian State of Tamil Nadu, is India playing a double game with Sri Lanka.
From the above discussion, one can decipher the riddle of Sri Lanka tragedy. The incident served only those who wanted to draw certain benefits out of it as discussed above. As in investigation of a crime scene, one must look at who benefited the most from these attacks; its Neocons, Israel and India.
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