Two complaints against the Eastern Province Governor A.L.A.M. Hizbullah and Minister Rishad Bathiudeen have been forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), stated the Police Media Spokesperson.
The two complaints have been lodged at the Police Headquarters the ‘Ravana Balaya’ organization and the Buddhist Information Center.
The ‘Ravana Balaya’ organization has lodged a complaint calling for law enforcement against the Easter Province Governor M. L. A. M. Hizbullah and Minister Rishad Bathiudeen on the 15th May, charging that they abetted terrorism.
On 24th May, the Executive Director of the Buddhist Information Center Ven. Agulugalle Siri Jinananda Thero filed a complaint against Hizbullah over allegations of contempt of court and influencing the court. They have called for an investigation against the governor on these charges.
Accordingly, the Police Head Quarters have directed the CID to launch investigations on these complaints.
On a joint search operation by the Sri Lanka Army and the Police, several suspicious items were discovered at a house in Narahenpita.
Accordingly, 04 headwear items of the Sri Lanka Army, 10 knives that are not permitted to be used at homes, and many communication and technical equipment were found at the house.
The Sri Lanka Army stated that search operations were carried out today (25) in areas under 6 districts.
Four persons were arrested in a search operation conducted in Naththandiya. The officers had seized 04 motor bicycles, 2 swords, 28 CDs, 48 suspicious books, and 7 magazines with the suspects.
Pair of binoculars, several bullets, and a large number of passports were discovered in a house in Kurunegala.
Meanwhile, an underground bunker was discovered at the house of a person who is currently under bail after arrest in Welipenna over several crimes.
Two fake number plates and 2 daggers were also found at a house in Welipenna area, stated Sri Lanka Army.
The public is urged to come forward with any complaints of Dr. Seigu Siyabdeen Mohamed Shafi having carried out illegal sterilization, stated the Police.
Accordingly, if there are complaints against the relevant doctor performing illegal sterilization the public can submit them to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Seigu Siyabdeen Mohamed Shafi, 42, a resident of Weerasinghe Mawatha in Kurunegala, was arrested by police at his home on May 25 based on information received by Kurunegala Police regarding the suspicious nature in which he had amassed wealth.
He is currently under the custody of the CID and it was also revealed that he had performed nearly 8000 Caesarian surgeries.
AFP / LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHISome 3,000 military personnel were deployed in and around the capital as well as other key towns for cordon-and-search activities
Sri Lanka’s military has detained nearly 100 suspects during four days of search operations against remnants of an Islamist group blamed for the Easter attacks that killed 258, officials said Sunday.
Some 3,000 military personnel were deployed in and around the capital as well as other key towns for cordon-and-search activities that began on Thursday, a military official said.
In the first three days, security forces took 87 suspects into custody and they were handed over to police for further investigations, he added.
“The number of people detained could be around 100 by now,” a security official said adding that almost all were taken in for possessing drugs and in some cases illegal weapons.
A few were also detained along with video and other propaganda material of the local jihadi group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) which has been blamed for the April 21 bombings.
The Islamic State group has also claimed a role in the attacks.
Several parts of the capital were also targeted in search operations by troops on Sunday.
Similar raids were carried out in North Western Province, north of Colombo, where anti-Muslim riots this month left one man dead and left hundreds of Muslim-owned shops, homes and mosques destroyed.
Security forces have arrested scores of suspects in connection with the April 21 bombings of three hotels and three churches, as well as over what appeared to be organised violence against the island’s Muslim minority.
While authorities say the immediate jihadist threat has been blunted, President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday extended for one month the 30-day state of emergency imposed after the suicide bombings.
Sirisena said the move was to maintain “public security”, with the country still on edge after the Easter attacks.
Christians make up 7.6 percent and Muslims 10 percent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka.
The Indian Coast Guard deployed its ships and maritime surveillance aircraft around the Lakshadweep and Minicoy Islands territory and borders with Sri Lanka after an intelligence report said 15 Islamic State terrorists had set off from Sri Lanka for the Lakshadweep islands on boats.
Authorities in coastal areas of Kerala have been put on high alert following the report, police sources said. Coastal police stations and police chiefs have been alerted about suspicious vessels.
Representational image. Reuters
The sources said, though, such alerts are “usual practice”, this time they have a specific information about the number of terrorists.
The coastal police department said it has been on alert since 23 May after the intelligence input came from Sri Lanka.
“We have been on alert since the Sri Lankan attack. We have alerted fishing vessel owners and others venturing into the sea to be cautious,” a coastal police department official told PTI.
After the serial bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, Kerala was put on alert, especially after NIA investigations revealed that IS operatives had planned attacks in the state. Intelligence agencies believe that a considerable number of Keralities still have ties with the IS.
Sri Lanka witnessed a deadly terror attack on 21 April when eight blasts rocked the island-nation, killing over 250 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Your guide to the latest seat tally, live updates, analysis and list of winners for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on firstpost.com/elections. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram or like our Instagram or like our Facebook page for updates from all 542 constituencies on counting day of the general elections.
Colombo, May 26 (newsin.asia): The suspected involvement of the Jamaat- ul-Mujahideen India (JMI) in the April 21 multiple suicide bombings in Sri Lanka may have made India ban the outfit last Thursday.
As reported in the India Today website on April 23, the Sri Lankan State Minister of Defense, Ruwan Wijewardene, had said that the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India (JMI), a unit of the Jamaat- ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), might have had a role in the Eastern Sunday bombings which claimed over 500 lives.
It may also be recalled that the Sri Lankan Army Commander, Lt.Gen.Mahesh Senanayake, had said that the leader of the Lankan suicide bombing squad, Mohammad Zahran, had visited Bengaluru and Kerala besides Kashmir either for training or to link up with other groups.”
On May 26, the Press Trust of India reported from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, quoting the police, that the Kerala coast has been put on high alert following intelligence reports that boats allegedly carrying 15 Islamic State terrorists had set off from Sri Lanka to the Lakshadweep islands.
After the serial bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, Kerala was on alert, especially after the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) revealed that IS operatives had planned attacks in the State. Intelligence agencies believe that a considerable number of Keralites are still with the ISIS
Bengaluru and Kerala in South India had become JMI hubs after the Indian agencies and the police started getting the upper hand in West Bengal and Bihar where the JMB/JMI was entrenched earlier.
The JMI/JMB’s ace bomb maker Boma Mizan” was living in Bengaluru incognito, and was arrested in Ramanagara in Bengaluru in August 2018. Mizan had also been a regular visitor to Malappuram district in Kerala which is Muslim-dominated. He was hoping to recruit youngsters from there.
Ban Announced
On Thursday, the government of India banned the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and its offshoots like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan.
A gazette notification dated May 23 said that these organizations have committed acts of terrorism, promoted acts of terrorism and have been engaged in radicalization and recruitment of youths for terrorist activities in India.”
Although the activities of the JMB and JMI had been under the scanner in India, especially since 2014, the April 21 Lankan bombings brought the focus back on to these outfits.
Activities of JMB/JMI
In 2018, Hindustan Times reported that Bangladesh’s most wanted terror duo, Salahuddin Ahmad alias Salehin and Jahidul Islam alias Boma Mizan had set up the JMI, the India chapter” of the JMB, after the latter came under tremendous pressure from the Bangladesh government headed by Sheikh Hasina.
In an article in Terrorism Monitor Volume” date June 29, 2018, Animesh Roul (www.refworld.org) says that on January 19, 2018, a low intensity blast on the grounds of the Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Bodh Gaya in Bihar, caused panic among devotees of the Dalai Lama who had just left after a visit to the holiest of Buddhist shrines. To everybody’s horror, two improvised explosive devices were subsequently found near the monastery’s Kaalachakra (Wheel of Time) prayer ground.
Investigations revealed the stamp of JMB and JMI. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India and the Kolkata Police Special Task Force (STF) believed that the JMB-JMI group was planning to avenge the atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in neighbouring Myanmar, by targeting Buddhist pilgrims in India.
Bodh Gaya and the Dalai Lama were to be the high profile targets which would give these groups and their cause, worldwide attention.
Salahuddin Ahmad alias Salehin
In February 2018, the Special Task Force (STF) of the West Bengal police arrested six persons from the Murshidabad and Darjeeling districts with suspected JMB links. Two of them, Azhar Hossain and Shish Mohammad, had allegedly planted the explosives in Bodh Gaya. The arrest of the duo led to the seizure of 200 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, 50 detonators, timers and tiffin boxes (metal lunchboxes) that were to be used to make IEDs.
The arrest of Paigambar Shaikh and Jamirul Shaikh confirmed that Salahuddin Ahmed alias Salehin and Jahidul Islam, known as Boma Mizan” for his expertise in bomb making, had set up the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India (JMI). They also said that the Bangladeshi Salahuddin, alias Salehin, is the chief of JMI.
While Salahudeen alias Salehin is still absconding, Boma Mizan was arrested in August 2018 in Bengaluru.He was trying to recruit Muslim youth from the Malappuram district of Kerala which has a large Muslim population.
JMB Active In India Since 2014
However the JMB as such had been active in India since 2014. According to the NIA, it was responsible for the blast in Khagragarh in West Bengal’s Burdwan district in December 2014.
According to Animesh Roul, Salehin had been a senior JMB leader since 2001. He was in charge of the Sylhet-Mymensingh region in Bangladesh, but had fled to India after escaping from a prison van with Boma Mizan in 2014.
Salehin had been sentenced to death for his role in the Mymensingh court bombing in 2007; the targeting several Christian youths in Jamalpur and the killings of Hridoy Roy, a Christian evangelist, in April 2003, and Joseph Gani Gomez Mandal in September 2004.
Salehin had started his radical career with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS). He joined JMB while studying in Tejgaon Polytechnic Institute in Dhaka, radicalized by JMB’s military chief Ataur Rahman Sunny.
Salehin was arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) of Bangladesh in April 2006 in Pahartoli in Chittagong. Boma Mizan, who was arrested by the Bangladesh police in May 2009, came to be noticed after the all-Bangladesh serial bombings carried out by the JMB on August 17, 2005. He had played a major role in making more than 500 bomb attacks across Bangladesh that killed and injured more than a hundred people.
Link With Rohingyas
Dhaka’s The Daily Star reported in 2009 that Boma Mizan had received explosives training from the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), an insurgent group that is fighting the cause of Rohingya Muslims against atrocities by Buddhists in Myanmar.
The long-standing operational links with the Rohingya group might be the reason for the JMB’ s targeting Buddhist places of pilgrimage like Bodh Gaya,” Animesh Roul opines.
Why JMB Shifted to India and Founded JMI
According to Roul, the JMB’s shifting to India could be due to factors: The first of course, was the relentless anti-terror campaign of the Hasina regime in Bangladesh and the second was a split in the organization in Bangladesh.
Some JMB members were pro-al Qaeda while others were pro-Islamic State. The JMI, founded by Salehin, has been pro-al-Qaeda.
Salehin had attempted to reinvigorate the old JMB by using popular online publishing platforms like WordPress and Justpaste as well as social media channels such as YouTube, to post their propaganda. In mid-July 2017, the Bengali-language JMB organ Sahm al-Hind published an interview with Salehin that gave details about future activities and the objectives of his new group JMI.
However, the remnants of the JMB left behind in Bangladesh re-named themselves as New JMB” and carried out stunning attacks like the one on the plush restaurant Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan, Dhaka on July 1, 2016 in which 20 patrons including 18 foreigners were killed by machete-wielding educated young Islamic radicals.
Animesh Roul points out that Salahin had outlined the JMI’s three main objectives, which are: proselytization, training and armed combat with a view to establishing Islamic rule across the Indian subcontinent.”
The JMI’s goal is to oust unbelievers” in the land of Allah” by force of arms.
He urged Muslims of the region to wage the mythicalGhazwa tul Hind(battle between infidels and believers in India) to establish a caliphate in the Indian subcontinent,” Roul points out.
How JMB Infiltrated Into India
The JMB was able to infiltrate into India because of the porous India-Banladesh border in West Bengal and Assam and the presence of fellow Bengali speaking Muslims in the border areas.
West Bengal and Assam have substantial Muslim populations, with mosques and madrassah networks that have allowed Bangladesh-based militant groups like JMB and Harkat ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI) to raise money, material and manpower,” Roul says.
West Bengal’s North 24-Parganas, Murshidabad, Malda and Nadia disricts and Assam’s Nalbari district remain major hotspots for Bangladeshi militants and have become a stronghold of JMB over the years,” he adds.
(The featured image at the top shows JMB/JMI bomb-making expert Boma Mizan held by NIA in Ramanagara Bengaluru in August 2018)
Attack
on Buddhism/Buddhists & Buddha is nothing new. The Buddhists are easy prey
because both Christianity & Islam are institutionalized faiths with
powerful funding, powerful countries & powerful organizations to back them.
From ‘Age of Discovery’ the Papal Bulls, Christianization of lands to Islamization
of lands, every Buddhist occupied land from Persia to Indonesia was stolen from
them by the sword. A stark contrast to the spread of Buddhism without a sword
or forced conversion. The philosophy that spread is killing institutionalized
religions that thrive on rules, regulations and monthly tithe. The dana or
giving is all that the Buddhist philosophy promotes. If you cannot destroy the
enemy externally attempt to do so within is the latest strategy to co-opt born
Buddhists wearing Buddhist robes & employed to distort Buddha’s teaching
& take people along a wrong path. Their karma will haunt them. Buddhists
are referred to as ‘racists’ ‘extremists’ ‘fundamentalists’ ‘militants’ ‘terrorists’
& even ‘clowns’. Obviously, some people are very annoyed with the teachings
of Buddha. Fundamentalism is described as A person who takes their religion so
literally and to such extremes that they contradict the very basis of their
faith. They typically believe in a literal, verbatim interpretation of their
scripture”. The last part is interesting. This means people are complaining
about Buddhist fundamentalists or extremists taking their scripture to the
extremes… in other words they are against the Buddhists reaching nirvana – the ultimate
extreme! That is rather odd isn’t it!
In
short, those that refer to people following the extremist side of their religion
are called fundamentalists or extremists. Those that are claiming Buddhists
please answer how Christianity or Islam spread across the world, how they took
over entire lands & how they forcibly converted, how iconoclasm a
foundation of their religion resulted in destruction of
non-Christian/non-Islamic ancient artefacts and marvels? Are these not the same
vandalisms we see taking place in 21st century? While over 600 years
separates Buddhism from Christianity & close to 1000 years separates
Buddhism from Islam there is no shred of evidence to prove Buddhism spread by
force or with sword. The extremisms of Christianity & Islam is nowhere
found in Buddhism though the paid press and propagandists make every effort to
show otherwise.
Religious
extremism derives from what cults or groups take out from the very books of
their faiths. Whether it is in context or out of context there is not a single
word found in Buddhas teachings to attack or kill another but there are plenty
of verses that can be taken from Islam & Christianity which is what is being
used for political Islam and militant Islam today and Christians are doing
same. While both Islam & Christianity EXTREMISM is taking whatever ‘out of
context’ verses for their extremism – if Buddhists are described as extremists
based on their faith it only means Buddhists give up all materialism to attain nirvana.
It is quite laughable when people describe Buddhists as ‘extremists’ because
extremism of Buddhism is quite the opposite of extremisms of Islam &
Christianity.
Not
a single word in the Dhammapada tells any Buddhist to kill. Not a single word
in Buddhas teachings have separated or categorized people or told Buddhists how
to treat non-Buddhists. Buddhism spread by word of compassion and not by any
weapon or force. This is what makes Buddhism stand out from how Christianity
& Islam spread. This is why there are well-funded efforts to present notion
that Buddhism is violent though nothing in Buddhist texts speak of violence
whereas enough of clauses and statements can be taken out from Christianity
& Islam to show violence.
CHRISTIANITY
What
are the quotes from the Bible that speak of extremity which encourages people
to follow extremes! Just imagine Christian fundamentalists following these
commandments to the word!
Do not think that I have come to bring
peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but with a sword. For I have
come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of
his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy.”
(Matthew
10:34-37 from Prince of Peace)
I
do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be
silent.”
(St
Paul’s advice in 1 Timothy 2:12 and used to argue against women priests)
This
is what the Lord Almighty says … ‘Now go
and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and
donkey.’
(endorsing
genocide, from 1 Samuel 15:3)
Do
not allow a sorceress to live.”
(Moses’s
call to kill witches, in Exodus 22:18)
And every one who has left houses or
brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s
sake, will receive a hundred-fold, and inherit eternal life.”
(Matthew
19:29 a lot of inducement)
Happy is he who repays you for what
you have done to us / He who seizes your
infants and dashes them against the rocks.”
(Psalm
137 on revenge)
You
can kill a woman if she seizes a man’s private parts without his permission: Deuteronomy
25:11-1: If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue
her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his
private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
Wives, submit to you husbands as to
the Lord”
(God’s
test of Abraham in Genesis 22, in which Abraham is made to offer his son Isaac
as a sacrifice; endorsement of female subservience in Ephesians 5:22)
Slaves, submit yourselves to your
masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the
cruel.”
(1
Peter 2:18)
I
do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be
silent.”
(1
Timothy 2:12 St. Paul’s advice)
For nation will rise up against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes
in various places: all this is but the beginning of the sufferings.”
(Matthew
24:7-8)
Render
unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.”
(Matthew
22:21)
…the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is anything
they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in
church”.
(1
Corinthians 14:34-35) – shameful for a women to be in Church
Let a woman learn in silence with all
submissiveness. I permit no woman to
teach or have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and
Adam was not deceived, but the woman was
deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing
children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.”
(1
Timothy 11:15) – so women are good to only give birth to children!
I tell you, on the day of judgment men
will render account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you
will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
(Matthew
12:36-37) – when killing is justified
ISLAM
Now
let’s imagine Islamic fundamentalists/extremists following their commandments
to the word! No wonder that Islamic terrorists are screaming ‘Allahu Akbar” and
terrorizing the world.
The
Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers
for the sake of Islamic rule.
“The notion of jihad martyrdom is extolled in the Quran,
Quran verse 9:1-11. And then in the Hadith, it’s even more explicit. This is
the highest form of jihad — to kill and to be killed in acts of jihad.”
Quran
(2:191-193)
And slay them wherever ye find them,
and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of
Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]… but if desist, then lo!
Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until persecution is no more,
and religion is for Allah.”
(authorizes
killing of others and encourages fighting until religion of Allah prevails)
Quran
(2:216)
Fighting
is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye
dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad
for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not.”
(showcases
violence as virtuous while contradicting fighting is for self-defense)
Quran
(8:12)
I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore, strike off their heads and strike off every
fingertip of them”
Hadith
1:13
I have been ordered by Allah to fight
with people till they bear testimony to the fact that there is no God but
Allah.”
Hadith
1:35
The
person who participates in Allah’s cause (namely, in battle). . will be
recompensed by Allah either with reward or booty or will be admitted to
Paradise.”
Hadith
9:4
Wherever you find infidels kill them;
for whoever kills them shall have reward on the Day of Resurrection.”
Quran
(5:33)
The punishment of those who wage war
against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only
this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet
should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be
as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a
grievous chastisement”
Ibn
Ishaq/Hisham 484:
Allah said, ‘A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered
enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world,
its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them
to manifest the religion.’”
BUDDHISM
Buddhism
does not have ‘commandments’/orders. His Teachings were not revealed by
coercion or ordering. His Ten Precepts are to be taken voluntarily for one’s
own benefit and for that of others. A Buddhist goes to the Buddha, Dharma and
Sangha for guidance (sarana) not refuge.
The course Buddha has advised Buddhists
to follow are
Thou
art well advised not to take the lives of living beings.
Thou
art well advised not to take what is not given.
Thou
art well advised not to engage in sexual misconduct.
Thou
art well advised not to commit perjury (speak falsely when questioned as a
witness).
Thou
art well advised not to speak divisively (separating those who are united).
Thou
art well advised not to speak harshly (offensively).
Thou
art well advised not to speak frivolously.
Thou
art well advised not to covet.
Thou
art well advised not to harbor ill-will.
Thou
art well advised not to hold wrong-views
The other 5 Precepts preached by Buddha
are
Abstain
from taking life unnecessarily
Abstain
from taking things not given
Abstain
from immoral actions
Abstain
from false speech
Abstain
from intoxicating liquors and drugs
Abstaining
is not an order. Karma awaits that chooses not to. It is however, their choice.
The decision to do good or bad is a person & the good & bad karma will
follow as a result.
Non-violence
is at the heart of Buddhist thinking and behaviour. There is not a single line
in 423 verses (Dhammapada) on the Buddha’s doctrine that refer to fighting,
violence or killing. Never has Buddhism waged wars or killed in the name of
Buddhism. The Buddha denounced all forms of violence.
In
times when priests told people that God can be approached through them only and
priests were dominating and applying rules upon people, and the Truth was to be
found only through them, Buddha showed how people could find the Truth on their
own.
The
Buddha asked loving-kindness to be extended not only to men, but even to all
animals. His doctrine was that we suffer misery because we are self. Our
unlimited desires lead to misery. The way out is to give up the self. Just as
the body changes our mind, consciousness changes. Selfishness comes from
holding on to self. If we know that there is no self we will be happy. He spoke
against animal sacrifice. He said that God is a superstition invented by
priests.
Conquer the angry one by not getting
angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and
the liar by speaking the truth”
[Verse
223]
The one who has conquered himself is a
far greater hero than he who has defeated a thousand times a thousand men.”
Do
not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do
not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do
not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious
books.
Do
not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because
they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and
analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to
the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
All that we are is the result of what
we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts. If
a man speak or act with an evil thought, suffering follows him as the wheel
follows the hoof of the beast that draws the wagon…. If a man speak or act with
a good thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.”
To enjoy good health, to bring true
happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and
control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to
Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.”
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory
is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or
hell.”
An insincere and evil friend is more to be
feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil
friend will wound your mind.”
In
the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions
out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.”
If Buddhists were to take compassion to
the extremes as advocated in the teachings of the Buddha the world would indeed
be a beautiful place and nature, flora and fauna would be protected.
There are no lines in Buddha’s teaching
calling Buddhists to take up arms, to indulge in violence, to kill (except in
self-defence).
So
who are the extremists/fundamentalists and how dangerous are those that take to
the extremes of their scriptures?
Both Christianity and Islam divided the
world between believers and nonbelievers, who is to be saved and who is to be damned. Both have declared wars in
the name of their religion.
Both
continue to uphold the sanctity of the Church and State (though they claim
contrary). Those that recall the Dark Ages, Reformation would realize that 2.3
Christian population of Europe was murdered. The Napoleonic Wars, African slave
trade which claimed 10million, the colonial conquests saw the murder of 20m in
the Americas alone. It is estimated that the 20th century alone killed
250million people of which Muslims are said to be responsible for less than
10million. Christians have much to account for. World War 1 claimed 20m, 90%
inflicted by Christians. World War 2 claimed 90m 50% inflicted by Christians.
The 6m Jews were killed by Christians and not Muslims! There is no end still.
America is the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons twice upon one
country. Today, many Christians are realizing the truth and are taking a more
practical view to life which cannot be said of the increasing
militant/political Islam now being aggravated by West using as a geopolitical
intervention tool.
Buddhists
must refuse to be shouted down by well-funded propaganda. Buddhists have not
caused historical or contemporary deaths using religion that run into millions
by both Christianity & Islam. Isolated cases promoted via media denouncing
Buddhism and Buddhists should not be accepted because none of their actions quote
Buddhist texts unlike Christianity/Islam.
There
have been no bloody wars to spread Buddhism. Therefore, those that ridicule
Buddhists as fundamentalists/extremist are essentially laughing at Buddhists
taking the teachings of Buddha and the Dhammapada to extremes and in reality it
is something to be proud of because what is wrong in treating all equally, in
finding the Truth, to love nature and not indulge in animal sacrifice and find
oneself. Perhaps the clowns that ridicule Buddhists need to read about Buddhism
first!
The
world would be dangerously compassionate if Buddhist extremism prevailed!
All tremble at violence; all fear
death.
Putting oneself in the place of
another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.”
I could not believe my eyes when I read in the Sunday Island of 19th May 2019, statements attributed to the Army Commander, Mahesh Senanayake. He is reported to have stated, inter alia, that, “If a soldier has done something wrong, it is the people who have given the orders, who should be held responsible. So I request kindly, all of you to go and find out who gave the order to him.” – Most astonishing!
If the Army Commander has in fact made this statement, (which he has not denied) he is referred to the Army Act, wherein it is clearly stated that soldiers should carry out only lawful and legal orders.
The Army Commander has made this utterance to cover up the controversial re-instatement of an army officer accused of several crimes including the murder of one journalist and torture of two others.
There is a landmark case in this very regard, which the Army Commander, if he is worth his salt, should be acquainted with. The case in point is the case against Lieutenant Volunteer Officer Alfi Wijesuriya, in the Kataragama Beauty Queen murder case. When he realized that the prosecution had made a watertight case against him, Lieutenant Alfi Wijesuriya stated in evidence that he carried out orders of the Co-ordinating Officer, Col. Nugawela, to “bump off” the prisoners – under Emergency Regulations. The prosecuting Senior State Counsel asked only two questions. First Q. was, whether an order to shoot a prisoner in custody, was a lawful order. His answer was “No.” Second Q: – Having referred him to the Army Act, he was asked if he was bound to carry out unlawful orders. His obvious answer was also, “No.” That sealed his fate. There was no chance in the appeal either, because he was convicted on his own admission.
In the case of Major Bulathwatte, if what the Army Commander says is Major Bulathwatte’s position too, he will have to face the same fate as Lieutenant Alfi Wijesuriya.
The Army Commander should not mislead the people with this type of skullduggery.
Complicity of Commanding Officers: The fact, that an unlawful order from a Commanding Officer is no defence to a soldier committing a crime, does not mean that the Commanding Officer who gave the unlawful order is absolved of the offence. He is culpable of aiding and abetting the offence. A delayed statement of an accused, implicating the Commanding Officer in his defence, however, is not reliable evidence. If there be corroborating evidence to prove his allegation, then the courts will pass judgement accordingly.
(The writer is a Retired Senior Superintendent of Police – in support of the fourth estate)
The people are living in fear of being blown to smithereens following the Easter terror attacks though it is being claimed in some quarters that the country is now safe. Nothing is of graver concern to the public, at this juncture, than national security, which is in peril. The situation is so bad that the government has had to extend Emergency. But the members of parliament don’t seem to give a tinker’s cuss about national security.
We reported, yesterday, that as many as 194 out of 225 MPs had been absent when the TNA called for a division on the extension of democracy, on Friday. Where had all those MPs gone?
The parliament website mentions only the number of days of absence under each MP’s name. This, we believe, is not enough. The number of hours he or she spends in the chamber should also be mentioned, for most MPs leave Parliament immediately after entering the Chamber and bowing to the chair, or waste time in restaurants or elsewhere to the neglect of their legislative duties. This, they do despite enjoying all perks such as duty free vehicle permits with massive soft loans to go with them and receiving attractive salaries and allowances which would make even their counterparts in the developed countries turn green with envy.
Some ministries have flying squads to nab errant public officers in institutions under them, and those who leave their workplaces without permission have to face disciplinary inquiries. But the MPs enjoy the freedom of the wild ass.
The MPs are in a mighty hurry, especially on the days when Parliament meets. Other road users have to make room for those worthies, whose motorcades zing. Where they go so fast is an enormous question in that Parliament is often virtually empty.
All these years, MPs, under successive governments, have made a strong case for a smaller Parliament, albeit unwittingly. If a half-empty House can manage the legislative affairs of the country, why should the public be made to cough up so much money to maintain as many as 225 MPs?
The House, more often than not, lacks a quorum, even when matters of national importances are taken up, and sittings have to be adjourned as a result. Public funds to the tune of billions of rupees spent on maintaining Parliament go down the gurgler every year owing to MPs’ absenteeism. The Speaker often expresses his concern and urges the MPs to mend their ways, but the situation remains the same
Perhaps, there is no other country in the world with so many elected representatives sponging off the public. It is jokingly said that if one kicks a wayside bush in this country at least a dozen people’s representatives jump out. Many a true word is said to be spoken in jest. (There are about 9,000 representatives in Parliament, Provincial Councils and local government institutions!) India has a 543-member Parliament for a population of about 1.3 billion and Sri Lanka with a population of about 21.6 million has 225 MPs!
The country is burdened with nine provincial councils which has about 450 councillors including 45 ministers. All of them, save one, stand dissolved and their Governors have been running them for a long time. The government, which is campaigning for devolving more power to the provinces, has proved that the country can do without province-based devolution, by postponing the provincial council polls indefinitely, on some pretext or the other, for fear of losing them. It is only natural that there have been calls for scrapping the provincial council system and saving colossal amounts of public funds spent thereon. Either these calls should be heeded or the provincial councils have to be revitalised to be of some use to the pubic while the number of MPs is reduced drastically.
The blame for MPs’ absenteeism should be apportioned to all party leaders, who have failed to corral the members of their parliamentary groups.
We often hear MPs thunder in Parliament, tearing into public officials for inefficiency and irresponsibility. These grandees should be urged to put their own house in order before flaying others. A fish is said to rot from the head down.
As the Attorney General’s Department of Sri Lanka marks its 135 illustrious years, Dappula de Livera, PC takes over its reins as the 30th Attorney General of Sri Lanka.
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Island, the legal bigwig who calls himself a ‘self-made man, priding himself on hard work’ explains how he plans to enable his institution to cater to the evolving legal needs of the time.
by Randima Attygalle
Q: Today, you occupy the hot seat of the Attorney General’s (AG’s) Department. How would you recap your eventful journey to date?
A: I feel a great sense of achievement. It has been a long journey of hard work and maintaining high standards in terms of integrity, honesty and independence. I attribute these tenets to my father, who thrived in them as a public servant of the old school. He had a long career in the government service and I closely followed his profession and always admired him as a man of integrity. He was my idol and my values are built on his conduct and behaviour as a public servant. I have a very strong uncompromising attitude and I have done my job according to the law and intend to maintain the same in the future.
Q: What about your school days and your formative years as a State Counsel?
A: I had my primary education at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo and my secondary education at St. Anthony’s College, Kandy. Both these institutions championed a strict regime of discipline which stood in good stead I should say.
I was admitted to the Bar in 1984 and joined the AG’s Department in mid-1985; I came under the wings of Shivakumaran Pasupati, PC, one-time Attorney General. I have served under several AGs and it had been a tremendous experience. Added to it was my exposure to several high courts across the country, which helped develop not only my advocacy skills but also my language skills. As an appellate counsel, I enjoyed what I did and I believe I made a mark in the appellate forum.
I had very tough judges before whom I appeared. Their sense of high discipline and attention to detail brought the best out of me. I take pride in the fact that I am a self-made man. I learnt through hard work and also by being conscious of the fact that I had to develop myself and build a reputation unique to me and my own style of advocacy. I believe it has paid its dividends.
Q: The recent Bond Scam case placed you in the media spotlight. How challenging was your engagement?
A: In terms of my engagement, I think the work I did with the Bond Commission really stands out. There was a mandate in terms of reference and getting through to the bottom of it was very complex, thus we had to strategize and plan for certain goals and objectives. We were faced with a lot of unwilling parties and had to work through different strategies and the interviews we had were very challenging because witnesses were very unwilling to divulge the details for different reasons.
We were also chartering the unknown waters. In terms of leading mobile phone evidence, it was a crucial breakthrough and that revealed a different dimension to the whole scam.
The outcome was very satisfying because we achieved quite a lot in terms of revealing the fraud and we were able to get to the bottom of it with a lot of effort, but I would have certainly preferred a little more time because we came to a point where we were moving into a different arena. I had a relentless attitude and we were interested in revealing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and in achieving it, I don’t think we left any stone unturned. I had a fully committed team of ten counsel of varied seniority and different expertise. They assisted me fully to achieve what we achieved.
Q: Apart from the Bond scam any other notable engagements you would like to recollect?
A: Another outstanding experience was my involvement in a Commission on Law and Order in early 2000, chaired by the former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Wadugodapitiya. I was the lead counsel and I led evidence to unearth the issues which were impacting adversely on law and order situation of the country at the time.
Q: How do you perceive the ‘generation gap’ at the time you joined the profession and that at present?
A: I think the present generation has issues with language, knowledge and ethics. There is a lot of learning to be done and they need to be more patient and cannot be over ambitious. It is disheartening that the profession lacks fully fledged young lawyers. Most of the young attorneys do not read legal literature and other material to upgrade their knowledge.
In my capacity as the Solicitor General and now as the Attorney General, I have been striving to inculcate in our young State Counsel the necessity to build an identity for themselves in the profession. They need to be mindful of the fact that they are in the public eye and building up an identity as a counsel is imperative.
A sense of competence and capacity has to be demonstrated because the public should have confidence in us when they see us in open courts. If we as officers of the AG’s Department cannot command that respect and match up to the expectations of the public and deliver, then we are a failure. I always encourage the officers to develop their language, communication and advocacy skills.
Moreover, they need to have a vision and a mission. They need to be mindful that while being eager to achieve quantity, they need to ensure quality which cannot be compromised. Quality can be achieved only through professionalism coupled with a zest to learn and develop and achieve competency.
Q: How do you think our legal education can be revamped to bridge this gap?
A: Sri Lanka Law College has a pivotal role to play and as a member of the Council for Legal Education, I am aware that a lot of work is being done to improve the standards of legal education. We have taken stock of the deficiencies in the system and address them so that the young lawyer is able to stand up on his/her feet and face the challenges of the new global order.
Q: As the Attorney General, how challenging it is to uphold the autonomy of the AG’s Department, given the political culture of the country?
A: As officers of the state, we have to apply the law of the country in whatever we do and as long as we act according to the law, we have nothing to fear. Your independence would come by acting according to law and the procedure established by the law based on the evidence. This is the direction I give all my officers. So it is a very simple formula – as long as you apply the law equally, there is nothing to fear.
The due process is what we are all looking for from the courts and from institutions which are mandated to administer the law. Procedure established by law should be strictly followed and if you cannot enforce due process then you cannot uphold the rule of law – this applies to our Department as well.
At the moment, public confidence in the rule of law is lost and a fear psychosis is now prevalent among the public. Law and order is in crisis and public security and national security have become issues. Hence, it is important that all institutions involved in the administration of justice strictly uphold the rule of law and thereby ensure equality.
Q: What would be the mandate of the AG’s Department in this crisis situation following the recent episodes of violence in ensuring that justice is delivered to aggrieved parties?
A: The violence the country experienced on Easter Sunday is unprecedented. The ripples of horror are still very much alive in the hearts and minds of people. We have to send a strong message to criminals as these crimes were so outrageous and put the country in a situation of unprecedented shock and dismay.
We have to deal with the responsible parties expeditiously and in the most stringent manner for multiple reasons: firstly to serve as a warning and deterrent to any potential offender and deter society and secondly to punish the guilty and most importantly to deliver justice to those who were wronged.
A dedicated team of our officers has already been appointed to advise the law enforcement authorities in the investigative stage. Once investigations are completed, we need to look at evidence and press charges to bring the cases to trial as expeditiously as possible.
Q: Can you throw light on any new measures that you intend to take to clear the backlog of cases?
A: In terms of criminal cases, we have introduced file disposal workshops running practically every week where all our officers and supervising officers get together and deal with old files and clear them on a systematic basis having regard to the geographical area and the subject area. Our officers come on Saturdays and devote their time to this exercise and we have reduced the backlog to a large extent.
Another step is the time frame placed on the new files. In the past, we concentrated on old files and the new files kept on building up. From this month onwards, every new file has to be concluded within three months so that they don’t add on to the existing file backlog. This is a two-pronged course of action for clearing both the old and new files.
In terms of new recruitments, 50 new officers are already on board and before December this year, another 70 state counsel will be recruited. With the new manpower will expedite the clearing of the backlog.
Q: What other measures are in the pipeline to give more muscle to the various Units of the AG’s Department?
A: While revamping certain existing Units such as the Child Protection Unit for example, several Units which are to fill long-felt needs are being formed and launched. The Child Protection Unit is being revamped and it will come under the direct supervision of the Solicitor General.
In addition, with the assistance from the UNICEF and the Asia Foundation, several new recruitments have been made to this child protection unit and a rapid file disposal programme is about to be launched.
The International Legal Affairs Division, which was set up last week, is another long-felt need. This Unit will be mandated to deal with all international legal affairs such as international agreements, treaties, reciprocity requests, foreign loans, international arbitration, mutual legal assistance, extradition and all matters pertaining to UN agencies and requests from foreign missions. This Unit will have a direct link to the Foreign Ministry and The External Resources Department and all other government institutions which have international legal work.
A Bills Division is also set up where all draft legislation will be dealt with. This will help counter the delay in issuing certification on the constitutionality of drafted legislation by the AG’s Department. The Corporation Division is being streamlined under a new Head to enable a better service to government corporations and other institutions.
With the assistance of the US Government, a Training and Development Centre will also be established in a few months. This will facilitate in-house training and capacity building of our cadres as well as officers from other government institutions.
We are developing an electronic diary for the department which can be accessed by all officers from anywhere in the country. This mechanism will provide easy access to day-to-day legal affairs from wherever the officers are stationed. All these are initiatives answer the call of the public who are waiting for justice to be dispensed and done.
Q: As an officer who has been very vocal on the issue of money-laundering, how do you propose that more teeth is given to fight this?
A: Our legislative framework on money laundering is quite sound. What is important to realize is that money laundering and drug trafficking go hand-in-hand. The Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) while investigating narcotics crimes should simultaneously investigate money laundering because all over the world it is proven that money laundering and drug trafficking are interlinked.
Right now the drug offenders are not investigated for money laundering which is a lapse on the part of our investigative mechanism. The law enforcement agencies should also have more dedicated manpower to deal with these areas. The Financial Intelligent Unit of the Central Bank should also provide necessary required.
We cannot be satisfied with the quantum of support rendered here by this Unit. Hence, money laundering is an area that should be taken stock of holistically.
Q: The proposed Counter Terrorism Act has led to a lot of controversy. What are your views on this proposed legislation?
A: At this juncture I prefer not to comment on it in detail, but I have voiced certain reservations about it.
Q: Finally what are your thoughts on the level of legal literacy among Sri Lankans?
A: Our people are more conscious of their legal rights now as they are very media-savvy, today. However, more can be done in this area which however is a policy matter the government needs to address and initiate. In this process, if the AG’s Department is called upon to assist, we are ready to provide the required assistance without hesitation, but I must reiterate that it is a call of the government.
The media has also played a very decisive role in generating public interest in the citizens legal rights which is a very positive stride and it should continue to do so.
Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, who was released last week on a presidential pardon, pledged to reveal the names with evidence of some others linked to National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) suicide bombers responsible for the Easter Sunday carnage.
“I will not only just name them, but petition the United Nations against the growing threat of extremism”, the Thera noted, adding “we will eradicate these elements.”
Responding to questions from the media in Colombo, the prelate said the Sinhalese need not get the permission of Muslims to ban the female attire ‘Purda’ and ‘Burqa’.
“Sinhalese don’t have to consult Muslim women to ban Islamic dresses worn by them. This is our country and we don’t have to be guided by what they believe is the proper dress code”, Ven. Gnanasara Thera said.
The military launched a major hunt, on Saturday, for the remnants of the National Thowheed Jamaath, which carried out the Easter suicide bombings, killing 258 people.
Several Colombo suburbs were targeted by troops using emergency powers on arrests and detentions adopted after the April 21 attacks.
“Special cordon-and-search operations are under way in three areas just outside Colombo,” a military official told reporters.
Similar operations were also carried out in North Western Province, near Colombo, where anti-Muslim riots this month left one man dead and hundreds of Muslim-owned shops, homes and mosques destroyed.
Security forces have arrested scores of suspects in connection with the bombings of three hotels and three churches and over what appeared to be organised violence against the island’s Muslim minority.
While authorities say the immediate jihadist threat has been blunted, President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday extended for one month the 30-day state of emergency imposed after the suicide bombings.
Sirisena said the move was to maintain “public security”, with the country still on edge after the attacks on three hotels and three churches that were blamed on a local jihadi group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ).
The Islamic State group has also claimed a role in the attacks.
Christians make up 7.6 percent and Muslims 10 percent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the independent Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka accused police of failing to prevent the anti-Muslim riots after the bombings.
“There appeared to be no preventive measures taken although retaliatory violence against the Muslim communities was a distinct possibility after the terror attacks of April 21,” the HRCSL said in a letter to acting police chief Chandana Wickramaratne.
The commission faulted the police for releasing suspects who were later seen taking part in attacks on Muslim targets. It said there was political interference to free some suspects.
“As soon as they (the suspects) were released, the mob attacked all Muslim owned shops in Kuliyapitiya town during the curfew and went on to attack shops all the way to Rambawewa,” the commission said.
It acknowledged that police could not have controlled the mobs on their own, but they had failed to arrange reinforcements from security forces.
“Ensure that no undue political or other external interventions are tolerated, and that strict legal action be taken against those who obstruct police officers from performing their duties,” the commission said. (AFP)
In March 2013, an India Today team was allowed access to the secretive underground bunker used by LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran. Here is what they saw.
The two-room house in a jungle in northern Sri Lanka which covered the entrance to Prabhakaran’s bunker. (Photo: India Today)
On May 21, 1991, Velupillai Prabhakaran, chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, made what was arguably the biggest blunder of his life. An LTTE hit squad assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The intensely paranoid and ruthless Prabhakaran feared a return of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) if Rajiv returned to power and so, he struck when the former PM was at his most vulnerable-during his campaign for the general election. Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in Sriperumbudur, a town near Chennai, was the first time the Tigers had used a human bomb in a targeted killing.
K. Ragothaman, the chief investigator of the CBI’s Special Investigation Team, later told me Rajiv’s killing was meant to be an operation the LTTE could deny, something it would never own up to.
Prabhakaran’s hand was exposed when a lensman LTTE had hired to photograph the assassination for their chief was himself killed in the blast. The camera recovered intact, revealed photographs of the entire hit squad, including the suicide bomber, Dhanu. from then on, The plot unravelled rapidly.
The LTTE had already fought the IPKF for three years between 1987 and 1990, but Prabhakaran’s dastardly action ended what remained of India’s support for the LTTE. Indian Navy patrols in the Palk Straits severed links to the guerrillas’ rearward base, Tamil Nadu, and Marine Commandos hunted Tiger cadres on the high seas. The LTTE chief, meanwhile, masterminded the 1993 killing of Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa-making his group the world’s only terrorist organisation to have killed two heads of government, one a former prime minister, the other a serving president.
On May 19, 2009, just two days before Rajiv Gandhi’s 28th death anniversary and when another Indian general election was underway, Prabhakaran was surrounded and killed by the Sri Lankan army. History had come full circle.
In March 2013, I travelled to northern Sri Lanka with my photographer colleague Reuben Singh. We were among the first Indian journalists to be given unhindered access to the Northern Areas which had been freed of LTTE control after 25 years. Our first stop was Mullaitivu district, adjacent to the erstwhile Tiger capital, Kilinochchi.
We were hosted by the gregarious Mullaitivu Security Force Commander, Major General L.B.R. ‘Marky’ Mark, an officer who had been trained in Indian military institutions. The burly, affable general met us at his sprawling mansion near the Nanthikadal lagoon and unabashedly took credit for what he believed was a hard-fought victory over the LTTE.
“Every morning, I sit on the roof of my house and sip tea looking over the spot where we found Prabhakaran’s body,” he told us. The site where his body had been found was now flooded, I was told. Deliberately, perhaps? The last thing Sri Lanka wanted was for the Tamils to build a shrine to the LTTE leader.
Our next stop was former LTTE chief’s bunker complex in Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaitivu district. It was the star attraction among a series of former LTTE installations now being run as a tourist circuit by the Lankan army. They called it the ‘Tiger Trail, the touch of irony perhaps unintended.
We drove into the thick Vanni forest of Puthukudiyiruppu, in the middle of A35, the highway between Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi. Halfway into the densely forested area, our vehicle veered on to a small dirt track around six foot wide. The trail ended at a nondescript pink-coloured, two-roomed house. It had an unusually wide porch framed by two slim pillars. It was a place vehicles could drive up to without being seen from the air.
Multi-tiered defensive layers covered the house, much like the mythical Chakravyuh of the Mahabharata. Five rows of barbed wire fencing, minefields, armour-plated soil-covered guard bunkers that rose out of the ground, cages for guard dogs and barracks for hundreds of bodyguards. This 60-acre complex was where Velupillai Prabhakaran lived for several years before he was killed.
Tour buses and cars ferried in a mix of Buddhist monks, schoolchildren and wide-eyed tourists, nearly all of them Sinhala and all eager to see the dreaded LTTE chief’s lair. A skinny Sri Lankan soldier in battle fatigues deftly flicked a thin pointer stick over a large layout of the bunker complex, speaking in rapid Sinhalese. “We won a great victory against terrorists.” He paused, as an explosion interrupted his spiel: demining teams destroying landmines around the complex.
The house was actually only a façade for what lay beneath. A heavy blast-proof door in the living room shielded a sloping passage leading to a bunker 40 feet underground.
The bunker was a four-storey structure with three-feet-thick concrete walls telescoping into the earth. Each floor was around 500 square feet and smaller than the next one. The entire structure was built to withstand air and artillery attack.
If architecture is a personification of its occupants, then the structure pretty much represented what Prabhakaran was throughout his life: underground, secretive and acutely conscious of his personal safety. The bunker was both his residence and a command post. It was here that Prabhakaran conducted briefings, met key aides and discussed strategy even as he hid from Sri Lankan Kfir fighter aircraft and covert units of the Lankan army’s Long Range Reconnaissance Units that had begun penetrating deep inside LTTE-controlled territory to assassinate Tiger leaders.
No one knew when the structure had been built, but we were told it had been in use for over a decade. In its heyday, the complex was air-conditioned and supplied uninterrupted electricity via a noise-dampened captive power plant housed above the ground. The power plant was no longer working when we reached there. The bunker’s interiors were dank, dimly lit and smelled of urine.
The first level had Prabhakaran’s operations room where floor-to-ceiling frames on the wall were used to pin maps and charts. The second and third level were large dwelling spaces of some sort with attached bathrooms. This is possibly where the Tiger chief lived a middle-class existence with his family.
Lankan troops that captured the bunker found beds, framed photographs of Prabhakaran on the walls, a stuffed tiger, bottles of cognac and Prabhakaran’s letters and photo albums. There were also LTTE uniforms, a Chinese QBZ-95 assault rifle and a container believed to have held the acutely diabetic Tiger chief’s insulin injections. When we arrived, however, the bunker was bare, stripped of everything, the walls painted in Sinhala signage to direct visitors inside.
Access to all rooms was through sloping staircases, the doors to the rooms all armour-plated for protection. At the bottom of the bunker was the fourth and last level, a circular chamber not more than 10 feet wide. It was the antechamber to a steep vertical escape tunnel that opened up some distance away from the house.
Also in the distance was a separate underground car park. Entrance to this vehicle park was shielded by torn strips of hessian cloth in the LTTE’s distinctive tiger pattern camouflage.
One frequent visitor to the complex, who might even have had a hand in its construction, clearly might have been Shanmughalingam Shivashankar alias ‘Pottu Amman’, the head of the Tiger Organisation Security Intelligence Service (TOSIS). This shadowy intelligence service of the LTTE controlled the Black Tiger suicide assassins and reported only to Prabhakaran. As Kumaran Pathmanathan, the LTTE’s former overseas arms procurer and seniormost living leader stated in several media interviews since his 2009 capture, Rajiv’s killing was the work of two individuals, Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman.
None of the ingenuity I witnessed at the bunker complex surprised me. The LTTE was the world’s first guerrilla organisation to field a navy and a rudimentary air force. Finally, it had even perfected the macabre art of converting a human being into a precision strike weapon.
Adele Balasingham, the wife of the late LTTE ideologue, recounted her 1989 visit to Prabhakaran’s underground ‘One Four’ lair. In her 2001 book, A Will to Freedom, she wrote of ‘a subterranean haven of tunnels and rooms chiselled out of the underground rocks’ some 30-40 feet underground where the rooms were ‘absolutely freezing at night’ because sunlight did not penetrate.
The bunker the LTTE chief moved into to escape the IPKF and where he lived in his final years was not designed to protect him from a full-scale ground invasion. So, in January 2009, when five Sri Lankan army divisions poured in from three directions into Tiger-controlled territory, Prabhakaran and his cadre fled towards the sea, taking with them nearly 100,000 civilian human shields towards the Nanthikadal lagoon where they made their last stand amid some of the most savage fightings in the 26-year-long civil war.
Even as the Sri Lankan army closed in, Prabhakaran’s overseas aides, including KP, made frantic escape plans to fly their beleaguered chief and his family out of Sri Lanka. The boldest one was to evacuate him using a helicopter flying off a merchant’s vessel. KP planned for the ship to take him to an African country, possibly Eritrea, and not to India, just 20 kilometres across the Palk Straits. Prabhakaran finally met his end on May 19, 2009, around 30 kilometres east of his underground refuge.
Our story made it to a Headlines Today (now India Today) prime time show on Friday, March 29, 2013, and an India Today magazine cover story (dated April 8, 2013), much to the displeasure of the Sri Lankan government. The island-nation was then under intense global scrutiny for atrocities committed by its soldiers in the closing stages of the war. ‘Terror tourism’, as we called it, was not the best news then.
Six months after our visit, on the evening of October 1, 2013, the Sri Lankan army asked people living near the bunker complex to evacuate their homes. BBC’s Sri Lankan correspondent, Charles Haviland, reported people ‘hearing an explosion and saw ash rising from the former Tamil Tiger facility’. It was the Sri Lankan army burying a key chapter in its bloody past.READ | Remembering Rajiv Gandhi: What exactly happened on that fateful night of May 21 in Madras and New Delhi
The Guardian’s South Asia correspondent describes the challenges of reporting the recent atrocities in Sri Lanka and finding the words to justify intrusion into the lives of grieving families
Mourners grieve at the graves of relatives killed in the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka. Journalists question their presence at deeply personal times such as these. Photograph: Atul Loke/Getty Images
In the immediate moments after the explosion, on a crowded street in Colombo, there was silence; the sound of thousands of people sharply inhaling. Then the screaming started, and people began to run.
It was about five hours after I had landed in Sri Lanka, a day after nine suicide bombers had detonated themselves in churches and hotels across the country. I was outside the blown-out remains of St Anthony’s church, where a few minutes earlier, survivors of the blast had quietly been recounting Sunday morning’s horror.
Suddenly, the fear was back, and columns of families streamed from the densely populated neighbourhood and up the street, unaware at that stage that it was a deliberate detonation by police of a suspicious vehicle believed to be booby-trapped with bombs.
I did not know either, and sought refuge inside an empty car park behind a chain-link fence – squeezing past a reluctant security guard – where I started sending paragraphs of what I was seeing to London.
After a few minutes, a young man also sheltering in the car park approached me. It is better if you go,” he said.
My backpack and laptop were apparently making people nervous – an impression my Middle Eastern appearance probably wasn’t helping to ease. People know these things can carry bombs,” the young man said of my computer.
I wanted to argue, but noticed that a small group was loitering outside the gate, shooting me glances as they talked. I left.
Journalists are never just flies on the wall of a story. In Sri Lanka, when we were not actively scaring people by our presence, we were attending the wakes of children, sitting in the city morgue with families as they identified the remains of their relatives, and surrounding the bereaved as their loved ones were buried in mass funerals.
Whether because of Sri Lankans’ welcoming nature, a different expectation of privacy or journalists’ sheer persistence, the media was granted extraordinary access to the families of victims as they navigated the worst days of their lives.
Afterwards, some of my conversations with other journalists were haunted by questions about our presence in these moments.
To approach a person holding a vigil outside a church where their whole family had been killed, and ask for an interview, I needed more reason than just: this is today’s news
Malcolm Perera, a labourer who said he helped carry people’s remains from St Anthony’s, including 50 bags of body parts, fumbled for words to recount his experience. Occasionally he lapsed into silence and just pointed at the sky and to his head. But he still talked to me and other reporters eager for vivid eyewitness accounts of the event.
Lakshan Anthony’s son was killed and his wife paralysed in the blast at St Sebastian’s. I met him the following Sunday outside the church, where he had come in defiance of security warnings to mark the occasion. At the stroke of 8.45am – the moment the first bombs had exploded – St Sebastian’s bells began to ring. Anthony stood outside the church fence, clenching his fists.
Both men needed emotional support. What they got was a journalist. I listened to them patiently, giving my time and attention. But I was also gathering material. Weighing the quality of the information I was getting. Empathising with the families of the dead – on a deadline.
Perhaps the only people with the right to look at images of suffering of this extreme order are those who could do something to alleviate it,” mused the American essayist Susan Sontag about popular representations of war and violence.
Say, the surgeons at the military hospital where the photograph was taken – or those who could learn from it. The rest of us are voyeurs, whether or not we mean to be.”
Another journalist I discussed this with shared her own discomfort at the sight of a group of photographers, walking backwards in front of families at a mass funeral, and accidentally treading on freshly dug graves. It was natural to feel appalled.
But then she saw photos of the scene on the front page of a newspaper the next day: a close-up of a mourner’s face wrenched in anguish and grief; a moving and powerful testament.
A few weeks after leaving Sri Lanka, I have gone back over mine and other people’s stories and read them differently. I can see the value. Respectful and sensitive reporting can give voices and faces to those who might otherwise have been abstract victims of some far-off tragedy. It bears witness, making apparent a shared moral responsibility. It asserts, against the fogging effect of time or deliberate denial, that in the words of the Italian writer Primo Levi: These things happened: This is true. This is my word for it.”
I assure you, these are not issues that arise in the day-to-day routine of reporting from south Asia. Bearing witness was far from my mind when I wrote about Indian movie buffs stealing milk to pour on posters of their film idols, Kerala’s burgeoning jackfruit industry, or the app that blocks access to porn sites and replaces them with Hindu devotional music.
But to approach a person holding vigil outside the church where their entire family has been killed, and ask for an interview, I found I needed more reason than merely: this is today’s news.
The world being what it is, Sri Lanka’s tragedy is unlikely to be the last I see up close. If and when that happens, I will go and cover it. And maybe later I will see it was worthwhile. But I don’t think it will ever get more comfortable. It shouldn’t.
Sri Lankan security forces have arrested scores of suspects in connection with the bombings and over what appeared to be organised violence against the island’s Muslim minority
Sri Lanka’s military launched a major hunt Saturday for remnants of an Islamist group which carried out the Easter suicide bombings that killed 258 people, officials said.
Several Colombo suburbs were targeted by troops using emergency powers on arrests and detentions adopted after the April 21 attacks.
“Special cordon-and-search operations are under way in three areas just outside Colombo,” a military official told reporters.
Similar operations were also carried out in North Western Province, near Colombo, where anti-Muslim riots this month left one man dead and hundreds of Muslim-owned shops, homes and mosques destroyed.
Security forces have arrested scores of suspects in connection with the bombings of three hotels and three churches and over what appeared to be organised violence against the island’s Muslim minority.
While authorities say the immediate jihadist threat has been blunted, President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday extended for one month the 30-day state of emergency imposed after the suicide bombings.
Sirisena said the move was to maintain “public security”, with the country still on edge after the attacks on three hotels and three churches that were blamed on a local jihadi group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ).
The Islamic State group has also claimed a role in the attacks.
Christians make up 7.6 percent and Muslims 10 percent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the independent Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka accused police of failing to prevent the anti-Muslim riots after the bombings.
“There appeared to be no preventive measures taken although retaliatory violence against the Muslim communities was a distinct possibility after the terror attacks of April 21,” the HRCSL said in a letter to acting police chief Chandana Wickramaratne.
The commission faulted the police for releasing suspects who were later seen taking part in attacks on Muslim targets. It said there was political interference to free some suspects.
“As soon as they (the suspects) were released, the mob attacked all Muslim owned shops in Kuliyapitiya town during the curfew and went on to attack shops all the way to Rambawewa,” the commission said.
It acknowledged that police could not have controlled the mobs on their own, but they had failed to arrange reinforcements from security forces.
“Ensure that no undue political or other external interventions are tolerated, and that strict legal action be taken against those who obstruct police officers from performing their duties,” the commission said.
In 2013, monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara was blamed for leading a major anti-Muslim riot in the Muslim-dominated town of Aluthgama in the Western Province.
By PTI
COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, who was controversially released from jail, has claimed that a Tamil Nadu-based Islamic organisation had inspired the local Islamist extremist group NTJ for carrying out the country’s worst terror attack on Easter Sunday.
Earlier this month, the Sri Lankan Army chief said that some of the suicide bombers visited Kashmir and Kerala for “some sorts of training” or to “make some more links” with other foreign outfits.
Nine suicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three churches and as many luxury hotels on April 21, killing nearly 260 people and injuring 500 others.
Hardline Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, speaking to reporters on Friday, said that two Tamil Nadu Thowheeth Jamaath (TNTJ) men — Ayub and Abdeen — visited Sri Lanka.
“They met one Abdul Razik here. The idea was to provoke Buddhists to attack Muslims. They spread stories derogatory of the Buddha,” Gnanasara said.
The hardline Buddhist monk was addressing the media for the first time since President Maithripala Sirisena ordered his release using a presidential pardon.
He was sentenced to six-year imprisonment for contempt of court in August last year. Due to Sirisena’s pardon, he was released from the jail after spending nine months behind bars.
“The TNTJ created Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath (SLTJ) and later All Ceylon Thowheeth Jama’ath. The SLTJ was later split under nine separate leaders,” Gnanasara said.
He said that despite the arrest of almost everyone connected to the NTJ, another key figure Abdul Razik is still at large.
“This Razik is misleading the security forces. We will locate him soon,” he said.
The TNTJ, in a statement issued last month, denied any links with the NTJ and said that both the TNTJ and the SLTJ have been involved in social service and have been campaigning against terrorist organisations.
Gnanasara became notorious for his anti-Muslim stance.
In 2013, he was blamed for leading a major anti-Muslim riot in the Muslim-dominated town of Aluthgama in the Western Province.
Since the Easter Sunday attacks, Gnanasara’s prophecy on rising Muslim militancy gained credibility. He had publicly claimed many years ago that the NTJ was grouping for terror attacks.
He was sent to jail for the contempt of court. His 19-year term was commuted to a 6-year concurrent sentence. Sirisena’s decision to release him has triggered widespread criticism by religious minority and rights groups.
Sri Lanka has banned the NTJ and arrested over 100 people in connection with the blasts.
Sri Lankan army soldiers during a search operation in Mattegoda, Sri Lanka, on Saturday, May 25, 2019. | Photo Credit: REUTERSMORE-INSri Lanka Easter bombings
A total of 69 key suspects have been arrested over the past four weeks.
Sri Lankan authorities have nearly completed the investigation into the April 21 Easter terror attacks, according to a top source familiar with the probe.
A total of 69 key suspects have been arrested over the past four weeks. We are looking for just two more of them in this connection. It appears that they are in Saudi Arabia,” the senior official told The Hindu on Saturday.
Troops have also launched a hunt to nab a wider network of radical Islamists that they suspect, may be linked to Easter bombers. Sri Lanka police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) are leading the probe, while military intelligence is also closely following the case. Experts from at least eight countries have been assisting the Sri Lankan investigators, officials said.
Of the 69 arrested suspects, not all had direct links with the nine suicide bombers. Some of them were indirectly connected, they are being interrogated. Even the two who are on the run were not directly linked. But still, we want them,” said the official who asked not to be named, due to the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation.
A month after the ghastly attacks that claimed 258 lives in multiple attacks, authorities said they have established how the plot evolved and the different actors came in. A detailed report, including a compilation of evidence gathered, is being prepared. While authorities have not ruled out the involvement of an external element” possibly linked to the IS – which claimed the attacks — there is no evidence yet to corroborate the suspicion.
Further, the probe has revealed that not all in the network wanted to be suicide bombers. Some of them were merely sympathisers,” said the official. Even Zahran Hashim’s wife, investigators said, was not ready to blow herself up for their cause”. Abdul Cader Fathima Hadiya and her four-year-old-daughter survived the suicide bombings in the eastern town of Sainthamaruthu, in which 15 persons died even as troops enclosed their safehouse following an overnight gun battle. She sensed that her brother-in -law [Zahran Hashim’s brother] was about to blast the explosives strapped to him, she ran to another room with her daughter and started praying,” the source said.
Meanwhile, evidence available so far does not show that the bombers maintained any significant links with India, the official said, apparently contradicting the Sri Lankan army commander’s earlier claim that they likely travelled to Indian cities.
Nimanthi Ranasinghe, Pathum Darshana and Dayarathna Embogama Courtesy The Daily Mirror
It was revealed that there were funds amounting to Rs. one billion in the bank accounts belonging to the five suspects, who were arrested in Horowpathana yesterday on suspicion of having links with the National Thowheed Jama’at (NTJ) and its leader Zahran Hashim, a senior police official told the Daily Mirror.
Among those arrested were a development officer attached to the Horowpathana Divisional Secretariat, a teacher of a government school in Horowpathana, two teachers of an Arabic college in Kiwulekada and a resident of Kebithigollewa.
Police said the suspects had delivered extremist sermons in Anuradhapura and Trincomalee.
It was revealed that these suspects had also received funds from the NTJ via one of the suspects of the Easter Sunday attacks, who is abroad.
Police said these suspects had received armed training at the Horowpathana jungle two years ago with the participation of several other individuals. (
Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said that the number of monthly inbound flights at the Bandaranaike International Airport has been reduced by 300.
Making a statement in parliament, he said artistes including film directors who had made movies for Vesak and those who were planning to put up pandals and other decorations for Vesak have also been affected.
Therefore, Mr. Rajapaksa said it was vital to have an overall economic management package to help those economically affected by the current crisis.
The Easter Sunday attacks have delivered a blow to the economy other than killing a large number of people. The SMEs, self-employed, bus owners and three-wheeler owners have been affected as a result of this tragedy. Some have found themselves in a a fresh crisis as they are unable to pay loan installments. Fines have been added to the debt installments,” Mr. Rajapaksa said. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)
When J.R. Jayewardene introduced the executive presidency his main declared reason for it was the much needed stability for the country. His argument was that under the Westminster system the country had had too many elections and since independence no government ran its full term until 1970. He believed that it was a great obstacle to the country’s economic progress.
However,what was not stated in public was the fact that the UNP had the islandwide total majority of votes in most elections, including when the party was badly defeated. What it meant, in other words, was, if the country had an executive president elected by the people the UNP could perpetuate its rule. Let’s look at the past and see whether these declared and undeclared objectives were achieved as anticipated. Whether the first expectation – the stability for the country was achieved or not is abundantly clear when one looks at the messy status of the current Government we have in power.
The most stable period under the executive presidency was the eleven-year period of J.R. Jayewardene. However, that stability did not come from the presidency itself, but mostly from the five-sixth majority in Parliament, which JRJ obtained under the Westminster system in 1977. He kept the same majority for his second term as well, by extending the life of the Parliament through a referendum.
Then, Chandrika Kumaratunga’s presidency was marked with confusion and uncertainty with a thin parliamentary majority obtained through the support of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and later the UNP getting the majority through crossovers and so on. It was no better than the so called unstable periods under the previous Westminster system.
Dream of perpetual UNP power
The same way the second and undeclared objective of JRJ, that is to perpetuate the UNP in power, did not happen. If you look at the period up to 2015, since introduction of the presidential system, out of the 37 years, the UNP ruled only for 17 years which means that JRJ erred in his assumption. However, from the country’s point of view which party was in power was immaterial as long as it was the decision of the people. The most important point is that the system never gave the country the kind of stability it was intended to give.
Some seem to believe that it was because of the might of the executive presidency that Sri Lanka managed to end the scourge of LTTE terrorism.
However, it is also relevant to note that the country successfully faced the 1962 coup attempt as well as the JVP insurrection of 1971 under the Westminster system of government.
There are so many examples in the democratic world where parliamentary system of government has provided sufficient stability and strength for the countries to face any type of grave situation. Neighbouring India is perhaps the most shining example in this regard.
In a parliamentary system it is difficult for an unpopular leader or government to remain in power unlike in a presidential system. Any difficult situation can be overcome through the Parliament itself by changing the old order and putting a new leadership in power without much hassle.
Quite the opposite is happening in our country under the executive presidential system. Instead of the expected stability for the country every person who gets into the hot seat becomes greedy and tries every trick in the book to stay in power and looks at the possibility of extending the tenure even by few months. Resignations are unheard of, and greed is such that resigning is akin to death for an incumbent president.
PR system of votes
The proportional representation system of elections was introduced as it goes hand in hand with the executive presidency. The idea was to avoid unwanted landslides and ensure reasonable representation to every political party based on the number of votes received from each district. That way each minority party was expected to receive some representation in the Parliament.
That result would have been achieved and as a result every small party has a member in the Parliament. At the same time it has created a host of new problems pushing the minorities away from the main stream political parties. This has also given birth to a number of ethnicity based political parties further polarising the society which was already divided.
On the other hand the PR system, while preventing landslides, has created a worse situation where no party can get a clear majority in the Parliament thereby negating political stability for the country. Today we are suffering the effects of this more than ever before – the country has no stable government and the main political parties are pandering to the wishes of small minority parties for their survival.
It is clear that the executive presidency is the root cause for many of the country’s problems. Creation of power hungry leaders, who cannot be removed during their tenure, irrespective of whatever consequences to the country, has caused much damage to the political evolution of the country.
Critical stage
Now, the country has reached a critical stage where the majority of the people have got fed up with the existing system and practically lost faith in all 225 Members of the Parliament. This is certainly a sad story for a country which has enjoyed an unbroken democratic tradition of close to nine decades.
Presidential system, with its authoritarian tendencies, has effectively prevented the emergence of potential new leaders. Instead it has helped the development of a new band of rustic third rated politicians most of whom are henchmen neither keen nor qualified to be future leaders. This has discouraged good men from entering politics making it easy for the bad lot to survive.
As a result the country is facing a shortage of potential leaders while the people have no faith in the current set of politicians who are fighting for leadership stakes. In such a situation it is naïve to believe that the next presidential election will sort out the current political, economic and social crisis.
The only way out will be for all the political leaders, if not, at least the leaders of three major power blocs, that is the President, Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to discuss this issue and come up with a suitable constitutional solution without delay. Reverting back to a parliamentary system with a modified electoral system and holding parliamentary elections under an interim Constitution could be one way of tackling the situation.
This can happen only if the country is blessed with honest and national minded politicians who can place the country above their own self-interest at least at a critical time. The misfortune of our country is the lack of such men and women and it is difficult to believe that there will be any change in the foreseeable future.
Customarily a post-mortem is done within 24 hours after a person’s tragic death, but it has taken more than a month to write about Sri Lanka’s atrocities that took place on Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019.
First and foremost, it was impossible to think how some of the bombers came from respectable families, who had been brainwashed into thinking that by killing anyone against Wahhabism in Islam faith would end up in heaven! The aim of this column is not to focus on the perished souls but to concentrate on the responsibilities forsaken by the Government of Sri Lanka and its failure on the hierarchical communication system.
Since the calamity, an expatriate Sri Lankan Group has written to President Maithripala Sirisena and the Prime Minster Ranil Wickremesinghe highlighting how the Government grossly failed in its collective primary duty in underestimating the threat posed by the Islamist terrorists. They make their recommendations to avoid a recurrence of this scale!
national Threat Level System
In their top priority list comes the appointment of a person with military experience to the position of Secretary of Defence; secondly, to strengthen the national Security Council (NSC); thirdly to establish a Single Source of Communication regarding national Security matters and through this authority to provide a daily security briefing to the public (at least for the next three months); fourthly, to use online channels to respond to rumours and to make any immediate counter announcements as necessary; fifthly to put a stop to Government Ministers making ad-hoc statements, which are likely to gain political mileage and finally, to establish a single NSC Twitter feed and a Facebook page and to ensure it is updated regularly. The most important aspect of their recommendation is to establish a national Threat Level System which is detailed in point form in the letter to the PM and President with a view to continuing with strong action to prevent any backlash against any community.
Easter Sunday
President Sirisena was in Singapore at the time of the disaster. His version (on TV and at various other platforms) confirmed how he became aware of the incident from social media (Facebook)’! The Prime Minister cast off his responsibilities by stating, he was never invited to any of the Security Council Meetings for six months”!
Venerable Mawarale Baddhiya Thero, a well-respected Buddhist monk, who usually devotes his time on Buddhist discourses (applicable to modern day living) was highly critical of the leaders of the present regime for their inability to save the country from a national disaster. ‘Such irresponsible and childish utterances filtered through to the international media have made Sri Lanka a laughing stock, he commenced his reproach. Denouncing PM’s approach, the Venerable Thera said, Ranil Wickremesinghe was free to express his personal ideas or utter any gibberish openly, but as the Prime Minister of this nation, he had to be more responsible in his approach and statements on a matter of national security!”
Warning Alert
Despite DIG Priyalal Dissanayake’s warning of an imminent terrorist attack, which he received on 4 April 2019 from Indian intelligence Service, to the IGP and the Defence Secretary, it has now been established what both of them adopted was a lackadaisical approach by ‘minuting’ the document and circulating in the normal administrative snail space procedure.
Everyone directed an accusing finger at the IGP and Defence Secretary for shirking their official responsibilities, the Defence Secretary, in particular, was chastised for speaking to a foreign journalist how he viewed the red alert warning with a pinch of salt and the ‘hotels had to seek their own security’! What an arrogant and irresponsible utterance in the face of a national disaster? Well, paying for their sins, the IGP was sent on compulsory leave, and Hemasiri Fernando had to quit his job. The new Solicitor General, who assumed duties only a few days ago, had directed criminal investigations against both officials’ failure to act on intelligence warnings about the Easter Sunday holocaust.
Crocodile tears
It is customary for the Government of Sri Lanka to shed crocodile tears, immediately after an incident because the Government doesn’t adopt a public policy, and officials and politicians deem to think as they please, or purposely take the omniscient attitude to nurture themselves. Due to this very fact, no one officially accepted responsibility for the sloppiness of protecting national security, which created a fear psychosis throughout the country, because of this very reason the confidence in the government is at rock bottom.
The closing of schools for over a week initially was its first proof. Parents naturally refused to send children to school when allegations became rampant about politicians’ and security personnel’s children were securely kept at home! The unrest managed to increase a sense of panic, ambiguity, mistrust and bitterness among parents, this is natural. Authorities, in the meanwhile, appeared to be engaged in a game of political ping-pong and passing the buck. If a national disaster of this magnitude were to take place in any other country, the whole government would have resigned out of shame!
Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith
His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith suppressing his solemn feelings pronounced, the Government should have at least informed him about the red alert warnings received by Sri Lanka Intelligence so that he may have been able to help in avoiding such a catastrophe. Politicians responsible for the Easter Sunday attack should be expelled; Some of them are living freely and pretending to be saints, but they should remember that though they are not punished by the people, they will be punished by God,” declared a grieved Cardinal.
When combined efforts of the Security Forces managed to unearth caches of weapons and ammunition, while arresting scores of suspects, who seemed to have had links with Islamist terrorism, it gave rise to a fear psychosis among people of a possible second attack on schools and Buddhist temples, as heaps of yellow robes, women’s skirts and Army camouflage suits were unearthed from different parts of the country.
This fear was triggered by an incident when a man wearing a Burka was arrested by Police, which undoubtedly managed to raise unexpected anxiety among the innocent Muslim population expecting an uprising by Sinhala radical mobs, yet the timely action by Muslim leaders and the clergy managed to diffuse any anti-Muslim sentiment by appearing on TV and stating, ‘The Quran does not prescribe the burqa, but women’s head had to be covered with a scarf or dupatta’; Meanwhile, the Ministry of Religious and Cultural Affairs warnings not to use mosques for radicalising congregations managed to calm the situation.
Still, there hangs issues with regard to the ideological attitude of the Government for not implementing the law to the very letter – meaning The Law is applicable to everyone irrespective of status or power”. This is again due to the Government’s placid attitude of summoning a few to the CID and ignoring powerful members of the Government, such as Rishad Bathiudeen, to record a statement, which in a manner will absolve him from barrages of accusations against the Minister, rather than permitting him to issue press releases and Media briefings about his innocence (as he claims).
The biggest headache for the government at present is about the Minister of Trade & Commerce, Rishad Bathiudeen, who is alleged to have had allegiance with the Islamist terrorists and particularly having connections with the Chairman of Colombo Traders’ Association (CTA), Y. M. Ibrahim, who is now in detention. Ibrahim’s son was declared as one of the suicide bombers responsible for the recent carnage. The Minister, of course, vehemently denies any official dealings or personal connections with Ibrahim and stresses how strong believers they are of Islam. Allah does not approve terrorism or fundamentalism, and I am not connected to terrorists nor do I support terrorism,” assures the Minister.
However, the latest uproar over the Army Commander’s statement how the Minister Rishad Bathiudeen phoned him thrice to enquire about Ibrahim has made the Government somewhat uncomfortable. The Minister has so far confirmed that he did not exert pressure on anyone into releasing any suspect connected with the Easter Sunday attack”. Responding to the Army Commander’s statement in particular to the Media, the Minister admits that on two occasions he made enquiries about the suspects on a request from the parents but did not ask for their release’. The Army Commander’s version is that the Minister phoned him three times, and on the third count he (Army Commander) had asked the Minister to phone him again in eighteen months”! So, it is a matter up to the public to decide upon who is right or wrong!
No-Confidence Motion
The opposition has already handed over a ‘No-Confidence Motion’ against Minister Rishad Bathiudeen to the Speaker, mainly because it is said that ‘the Minister has been able to stain the reputation of the entire Muslim community’. However, according to the Leader of the House, the Speaker will be compelled to reject the No- Confidence Motion, due to an error on the date mentioned therein. Are people to expect another spectacle?
Whatever said and done, Sri Lankans as a nation should be able to live in harmony, as before and over the past so many centuries, but isolation of the entire Muslim community due to Islamist terrorism will only drive the whole community into the hands of the extremists and terrorists.
Kerala Coast was put on high alert following Intelligence reports that 15 ISIS terrorists set off from Sri Lanka to Minicoy Island in Lakshadweep, India.
The terrorist have been set off in a white boat to the island and the police were asked to prevent them entering Kerala coast, Indian media reported quoting sources on Saturday.
Coastal areas are under strict surveillance and patrolling was intensified at Thrissur and Kozhikode following the intelligence reports.
Fisherman committees were also asked to stand vigil against unnatural activities in the coastal areas.
The Director of Police, Coastal Security has issued an alert after receiving the intelligence reports.
The security agencies have asked the fishermen, coastal residents, and members of Jagratha Samithi to be cautious and maintain vigil around the area and also to inform them of any suspicious activities.
After the bombings in Sri Lanka, Kerala was on alert, especially after NIA investigations revealed that IS operatives had planned to attack religious gatherings of Hindus in the State.
A high number of Keralities are believed to be still with the ISIS which was recently wiped out from Iraq and Syria. Reports say that ISIS is moving to South Asia to expand its area of operations.
Sri Lankan witnessed major terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday when eight blasts rocked the Island Nation and left 253 people killed.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the incident.
China on Saturday became the first country to tone down its travel advisory imposed on Sri Lanka post the Easter Sunday blasts, in a move that would help in reviving the tourism industry of the island nation hit hard by the terror attack.
The move came a day after Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appealed to the international community to lift the travel warnings, assuring that the security situation has improved in the country after the crackdown on Islamist groups and their networks.
We are happy announce that the travel ban on visiting Sri Lanka implemented by China has now been toned down to ‘be cautious’ while travelling to Sri Lanka from ‘Do not travel to Sri Lanka’,” Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said today.
China is the second largest market, after India, for the Lankan tourism sector. The number of Chinese tourists to Lanka has been relatively steady at over 265,000 since the last three years.
Several countries, including India, US, UK and Australia, advised their citizens against non essential travel to Lanka after the terror attacks on three luxury hotels and three churches on April 21 that killed nearly 260 people, including over 40 foreigners.
This dealt a telling blow on the local tourism industry. Booking cancellations caused a 70 per cent slump in arrivals, the industry leaders said.
Tourism accounts for about five per cent of Lanka’s economy. Besides, India and China, the UK is also a major market. The country earned about USD 4.4 billion in 2018 from the tourism sector.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said April recorded 166,975 foreign tourists in the country compared to 180,429 in April 2018, a 7.5 per cent dip in arrival of tourists from abroad.
The doctor attached to the Kurunegala Hospital, who was arrested over assets earned through suspicious means, has been handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said that the doctor was handed over to the CID for further investigations.
A 42-year-old doctor attached to the Kurunegala Hospital has been arrested over assets earned through suspicious means, Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said.
Seigu Siyabdeen Mohamed Shafi, 42, a resident of Weerasinghe Mawatha in Kurunegala, was arrested by police at his home last night based on information received by Kurunegala Police regarding the suspicious nature in which he had amassed wealth.
Police said he was taken into custody in order to investigate his assets and the means by which he had earned them.
The arrested doctor in question is a member of Minister Rishad Bathiudeen’s All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) and had contested the last General Election from the Kurunegala District under the UNP.
The other day at a meeting held at the
BMICH after the April 21st disaster, MP Sumanthiran, it was reported
in ‘The Island’, had asserted something to the effect that the carnage in
question was again a symptom of non-addressing of the grievances of the
minorities and that the minorities would not agree to live as one nations in
this country unless treated as equal citizens. This he had said to the lusty
approbation of the invited audience.
I believe what Mr. Sumanthiran is
lamenting and is aggrieved and frustrated here in other words with, is the
non-passage of their proposed new constitution in Parliament so far. The
intended implication is that if it was, the minorities could agree to live here
as equal citizens under the present situation.
And the problem would not have arisen.
Let us for a moment imagine that the new
Constitution was in place by now. It would mean the coming to be of 9
independent Provincial Governments with a nominal, non-executive President and
with 9 Chief Ministers and governors appointed in consultation with the
respective Chief Ministers.
Now let us imagine if the 21/4 carnage
occurred under these circumstances. (As Malcom Ranjith Cardinal had pointed
out, this carnage had been carried out by a local Muslim extremist group
inspired by the ISIS. rather than due to any minority grievance).
If the TID officers of Police HQ. wanted
to walk into the Dematagoda nerve centre of NTJ, They couldn’t do that like the
way they did, almost within an hour. They would first have had to obtain the
permission of Mr. Asath Sally the Governor Western province, having placed
before him the available information or, grounds for their reasonable
suspicion. Needless to say if that was done, there would have been no explosion
in the house, killing the inmates and the children. It would have saved the
lives of the 3 police officers and resulted in no recovery of any incriminating
evidence. Isn’t that a good result ensuring tolerance – live and let live
policy of the central government?
Then the next thing that happened two days
later was that the STF and the Army raided successfully 3 safe houses of NTJ in
Sammanathurai, Sainthamaranthu and Kattanakudy with success. If it was under
the new constitution, whose prior permission would they have had to obtain?
From none other than the Governor EP, Mr. M.L.M. Hisbulla himself ! If they did,
no deaths would have occurred. No evidence recovered. It would have been a case
of unnecessary instance of harassment of the innocent minority group.
The next thing that we heard was that the
Army and Police had subjected the Kilinocchi University to a thorough search.
Under the new Constitution, they would have had to obtain the permission of Dr.
Raghavan, having convinced him of the reasons for their suspicion or
information.
Just the other day we read that Kurunegala
Police had come all the way to Rajagiriya and had arrested a Hansard Department
staffer of the Parliament and that he was a resident of Alawathugoda in Kandy
District and he was concerned with activities of the NTJ in Akurana Katugastota
Police area. Under the new Constitution, Asath Sally would have asked, How
dare you ? , so would the Governor of
the Central Province. They would have taken the police officers before the
Constitutional Court for violation of the Constitution.
This would have been the lunatic state of
affairs if the new constitution would have been passed in Parliament to please
the UNHRC’S 30/1 Resolution, and the likes of Sumanthiran and others who had
applauded him at the BMICH. Does this not lay bare the fact that the purpose of
the proposers of the new Constriction was meant to destroy the law enforcement mechanism
and governance of this country?
M.S. Fouzul Ameen should have been alive today. The furniture shop owner from Kottaramulla, Nattandiya was killed by a mob on May 13, 2019. Many shops owned by Muslims should still be standing. They are not. No one should have or should show any apprehension of any Muslim, regardless of attire or appearance. Non-Muslims are wary and Muslims are apprehensive of one another. Should not be that way, but that’s what things have come to.
After Fouzul Ameen was killed, a Facebook post with a picture of his ID card tagged to it, raised a question. “මේ මනුස්සයා ගේ දරුවන් අන්තවාදීන් නොවී සිටීමට අපට කළ හැකි දේ මොකක්ද? -ඔව් අරලේ ඉල්ලපු අයගෙන් තමයි අහන්නේ?- (what can we do to stop the children of this man from becoming extremists — yes, the questions is for those who were demanding blood).
Legit. As legit as this response to the post: ‘තව්වො මරපු මිනිස්සුන්ගෙ ID හොයාගන්න බැරිවෙන්න ඇතිනේද? බී කොන්සිස්ටන්ට් ඕ බී සයිලෙන්ට් කිව්වලු.’ (Perhaps you couldn’t find IDs of those who the NTJ killed? Be consistent or be silent, they say). Perhaps as response to the observation, a clarification followed: බෝම්බ ප්රහාර වලින් මිය ගිය ජනයා ගැනමෙසේ ලීවෙමි “මම ආරක්ෂාවෙන් පසු නොවෙමි, මියගියේ මගේ මිනිසුන් ය. මා සයිලන්ට් නොවෙන අතරකන්සිස්ටන්ට් බව සහතිකය’ (This is what I wrote about those who died in the bomb attacks, ‘I am not safe, those who died are my people.’ I am not silent and I am convinced of my consistency.’ And here’s the response: ‘හරිම ලයාන්විතයි බෝම්බකරුව්න් විශයෙහි. ඔබ කොන්සිස්ටන්ට් නැත.’ (Very tender are you with respect to the suicide bombers; consistent you are not.’
The violence in the North Western Province is unlike what we saw on Easter Sunday in that the latter was a product of long-term strategizing including the setting up of terrorist training camps, stockpiling arms and ammunition, and systematic indoctrination. But we can and should talk about the equivalencies.
The law enforcement authorities were clearly complicit in the case of the Easter Sunday attacks and in the mob violence led by people outside the particular areas that erupted three weeks later that took the life of Fouzul Ameen. Politicians offered support, direct or indirect, or were silently complicit. Theoretically, both could have been prevented provided warning signs noted, warnings heeded and relevant measures put in place.
Issues of identity marked both. In the one, terrorism for the purpose of faith-affirmation. In the other, the targeting of a community. In the one, some argue, the rise of a movement as response to existentialist angst. In the other, although the same people will not acknowledge, a similar angst, at least in the outward expression, never mind the clear hand of bankrupt politicians.
The equivalency has been given credence by many commentators, mostly from Colombo’s Twitterati (aka Kolombians and Colombots) made up of Born Again Democrats and Funded Voices. The Easter Sunday bombs shocked them, naturally. So did the violence in the North Western Province. In the first case, they were quick to say ‘Terrorism has no religion’ (never mind that the terrorists were affirming a faith and not forgetting, following that logic, the fact that we have many religion-less mosques and Islamic educational institutes! In the latter case, the perpetrators were labeled: ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ (with or without the ‘extremist’ tag).
Some, correctly, pointed out the long history of patriotism affirmed by Muslims. The names of officers who laid down their lives in the war against terror were mentioned. And yet, interestingly, the very same people who make this point also claim that ‘Sinhala Buddhist majoritarianism’ caused the war which, again they say, was fought by Sinhala Buddhists against Tamils! Strange.
Dr Harsha De Silva went an extra mile, claiming that the Kuliyapitiya violence cost the economy more than the Easter Sunday attacks. Yes, ‘Doctor’ Harsha De Silva. Economist. Someone called Taylor Dibbert was more specific. He penned a piece for www.foreignpolicy.com titled ‘Buddhist anger could tear Sri Lanka apart’. At least he’s said out loud what the aforementioned twitterati only whispers in private. Yep. Buddhists are the villains of the piece. They are who could tear Sri Lanka apart. What that to-be-torn country is, of course, is up for debate.
For a long time, we have had this anti-Buddhist sentiment finding expression in various ways. It takes the form of advocating a secular state without mentioning history, without talking about all the privileges enjoyed by non-Buddhist religious fraternities (compared, for example, to what religious minorities enjoy in Muslim or Christian nations). Mangala Samaraweera and his ilk say ‘We are Sri Lankans’. Correct. But then again, why don’t this One Sri Lanka folk work tirelessly to advocate and constitutionally concretize the ‘One Nation, One Law’ thesis? Why not scream for the abrogation of customary laws?
But we are in a season of equivalency here and that calls for a vilification of Buddhists and of course Sinhala Buddhists. In the long history, we have had villainy. Magha of Kalinga: was he a Buddhist? The Portuguese who destroyed temples: were they Buddhists? The British who perpetrated genocide (a word oft mis-used by its users), ethnic cleansing and whose rule was marked by religious persecution and, again, the vandalizing of temples and kovils: Buddhists? Then there is the recent history. Velupillai Prabhakaran, goaded by Tamil racists: a Buddhist? The NTJ/ISIS: products of Buddhist extremism?
Back to equivalency. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). They were quiet for three whole weeks and were quite shy about explaining off the fact that they entered the name of a top rung NTJ operative in their national list. Then, Kuliyapitiya happened. Then came the poster, condemning all extremisms. Correct. But late. And selective, strangely.
And now we have both the United National Party (UNP) and the JVP in navel-gazing mode regarding the vote of no confidence on Rishard Bathiudeen. We know the charges. We know that the near and dear, blood-wise, faith-wise and political loyalty wise, were right up there among the bigwigs of the NTJ terrorists. Sure, we can and should ask why a similar vote is not taken on Dayasiri Jayasekera for some actions that were similar to the lesser charges against Bathiudeen. That aside, it is nothing less than scandalous for Navin Dissanayake to say that the move on Bathiudeen is racist. That’s almost saying ‘if you are not a Sinhalese or a Buddhist and you engage in any kind of hanky panky, you get a wide berth because, well, you belong to a minority and therefore any action against you has to be racist.’ There’s equivalency of other kinds. Recent history. Tamil racists persuaded hotheaded Tamil youth to take up arms. They introduced a kind of vulnerability that the Tamil community had not hitherto experienced.
Look what the NTJ did. The same. And yet, behind the shield called ‘religious freedom’ we saw the rise of a doctrine among whose key tenets are elements that are in contravention of basic democratic norms and seek to bend the penal code. Yep. Wahhabism. That’s a religion. It fathered the NTJ. But we are not allowed to say it, are we? Oops, I just did! So sue me!
Equivalency is the word here. I think I might have got it wrong. It might be better to talk about wild extrapolation. As another social media commentator observed, ‘Those very same losers who were silent when 250 plus people were killed by some nutters, are now so vociferous about some politically staged crap about the majority of the country being racists; if that were so, this place should be worse than Syria.’
Last weekend we saw Muslims and Christians in their thousands celebrating Vesak. That’s not going to deliver reconciliation, but it will not hurt it either. Indeed, even though the gesture was warm and warmly received, I don’t think anyone should feel compelled to celebrate some other faith on account of penitence (on behalf of ‘nutters’ professing the same faith) or fear. I say this knowing well that many among them did it for reasons more wholesome than fear and which went beyond ‘penitence’. What is more important, and I believe it is happening in the Muslim community in a big way, is determined objection to all forms of teaching that buttress extremism of the kind we saw on Easter Sunday.
At a recent media conference, some Muslim leaders were outspoken about the need for the Muslim community to indulge in introspection. Ali Saby observed that a historic opportunity has arisen to reform Muslim Law and customs in Sri Lanka. I offer that this opportunity can be squandered by the equivalency hordes referred to above.
There are two ways to trip. One is to sweep the truth under the carpet. The other is to spin a web of lies or half-truths. Such things are not the preserve of any single community, religious or otherwise, of course, but the Equivalency Clowns are certainly doing it full time. Doesn’t help. If indeed we get to reconciliation and civilization it will not be because of them but in spite of them. We owe it to every single victim of the Easter Sunday attack and to the good furniture shop owner, the late M.S. Fouzul Ameen. malindasenevi@gmail.comEmail ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook
Legal action should be immediately taken against governors M.L.A.M. Hizbullah and Azath Salley as well as Minister Rishad Bathiudeen for their direct involvement in the attacks, says the Chairman of ‘Sinhale Api’ National Movement Venerable Jamburewela Chandarathana Thero.
Addressing a press conference held in Colombo today (24), he further commented on an attack carried out by Zahran Hashim’s group against Sufi Muslims in Kattankudy on 10th March 2017.
Revealing the footages recorded during the said attack to the media, Ven. Chandarathana Thero stated that former Eastern Province Chief Minister Nazeer Ahmed was responsible for defending Zahran Hashim from police arrest.
The then OIC of Kattankudy Police, Ariyabandu Welagedara, was transferred to another police station on 10th of July 2017 while police investigations into the incident were ongoing, Ven. Chandarathana Thero said.
He further stated that a comprehensive investigation should be commenced into the then OIC of Kattankudy Police and the former chief minister of Eastern Province.
By the time the next OIC of Kattankudy Police assumed duties, Kattankudy police had already two warrants in two court cases against Zahran, however, he had not been arrested, Ven. Chandarathana Thero alleged.
P.K.Balachandran/South Asian Monitor Courtesy NewsIn.Asia
The political wave which engulfed most of India on May 23 has been aptly named Tsunamo” – a Tsunami like Narendra Modi wave which caused unexpected and unprecedented electoral destruction as it swept across the country.
Namo” in Tsunamo” is short for Narendra Modi, the iconic leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Prime Minister of India.
On the all-India plane, the Tsunamo”, has caused the demolition of the Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi. He himself lost the election in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, though he won convincingly in Wayanad in Kerala.
At the State level, the Tsunamo badly damaged an opposition citadel like the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal led by the fiery Mamata Banerjee.
The electoral earthquake saw the YSR Congress Party, a rebel group of the Congress, comprehensively beat the seemingly entrenched Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by opposition stalwart N.Chandrababu Naidu.
BJP-NDA Handicapped At Start
During the month-long election process, the ruling BJP led National Democratic Alliance (BJP-NDA) was not expected to get even the minimum 272 seats out of the 542 up for grabs. It was expected to fall short by 30 to 60 seats, a shortfall it was expected to make up by enlarging the NDA to include more parties.
The BJP-NDA government was not given the clean chit by economic experts and left-oriented commentators. They saw the demonetization of 85% of India’s cash and the introduction of the cumbersome All India Goods and Services Tax as having caused an immense burden on the rural man and the small businessman.
Neglect of agricultural finance had led farmers to commit suicide in States ruled by the BJP-NDA. The Muslims and the lowest caste of Dalits were being lynched by government-backed Hindutva vigilantes for carrying beef or taking cows for slaughter because they hurt Hindu sentiments about the Holy Cow.”
Indeed, the BJP-NDA seemed to be on a weak wicket as the 2019 parliamentary elections approached. Just a few months before the parliamentary elections, the BJP-NDA had been defeated in key State elections by the Congress-led United Peoples’ Alliance (Congress-UPA). The BJP-NDA lost Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh in the North and Karnataka in the South. The Congress nearly ousted the BJP-NDA in Goa.
The BJP-NDA lost by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, a State which it had swept both in the parliamentary and State Assembly elections held earlier.
Exit Polls Saw Change in Fortunes
But despite all this, the exist-polls published last Sunday, predicted a stunning victory of the BJP-NDA. The coalition was slated to win 267 to 350 seats in a House of 542. It was expected to do well even in the States which it had recently lost.
Commentators either laughed at this or tried to explain that Modi’s mini war” air war against Pakistan as a riposte to the killing of 44 paramilitary personnel in Kashmir, had won him kudos. He was seen as a strong man” who would teach Pakistan, which was accused of unleashing cross-border terrorism on India, a fitting lesson”.
It was also said that national security issues demanded a strong leader who would make a virtue of hate” and not a leader like Rahul Gandhi of the Congress who was touting the idea that matters should be sorted out by love” and not hate”. Nothing excites and unites like hate” and it did.
A resurgent middle and upper class India, dreaming of world and regional power status for their country, found Rahul Gandhi not be the man of the moment, despite his secularism, and the soundness of his economic criticisms.
Failure of Alliance Formation
The results predicted by the exit polls had also taken into account the splintering of the non-BJP-NDA votes. An early attempt to bring all the non-BJP-NDA parties together by the West Bengal leader Mamata Banerjee failed because the Congress did not cooperate. Wanting to be the number one, as before, the Congress did not join the Trinamool Congress grand scheme. The Congress and the Communist parties also decided to take on Trinamool Congress in West Bengal knowing fully well that if they did,the BJP will gain.
Likewise in Delhi, the Congress avoided aligning with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a committed anti-BJP outfit ruling Delhi.
In Uttar Pradesh, which has the single largest number of seats in parliament, the Congress did not make an effort to join the Grand Alliance called Mahaghatbandhan” partly because the powerful Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati was averse to working with the Congress.
With the Congress left out in the cold the Muslims (15 % of the population) had begun to lean towards the Mahaghatbandhan which showed promise.
In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, in which the Congress was successful in State-level elections, BJP’s leader Modi was seen as a more suitable national leader than Rahul Gandhi or any other leader of the opposition. The voters here had apparently drawn a distinction between local and national elections, the latter involving not non-local but national issues.
Exit Polls Proved Right
Sure enough when counting of votes began on May 23, the results reflected the projections made on the basis of the exit polls released on May 19.
By the midnight of May 23, the BJP-NDA won in 341 of the 542 seats, Congress-UPA got 95, and others 88 seats. Everybody concluded that the BJP-NDA had won and congratulated Modi.
The BJP-NDA had swept the polls in all the North Indian States in which it was defeated in the recent State Assembly elections as in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
In Rajasthan, the BJP-NDA was leading in 25 seats of the total of 25 seats in contrast to the INC-UPA which was leading in none. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP-NDA was leading in 28 of the 29 seats while the Congress-NDA was leading in only one.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Mahaghatbandhan parties did badly with the BJP-NDA winning 62 seats and the Mahaghatbandhan parties getting only 15 of the total of 80 seats. The Congress got one.
The BJP-NDA has taken Gujarat and Maharshtra too.
In West Bengal, the BJP-NDA had come close to defeating the Trinamool Congress by grabbing 18 seats while the Trinamool Congress got 22 and the Congress got two out of 42. This is a major blow for Mamata Banerjee who even Modi had described as a speed breaker”.
Many political personalities of the Congress-UPA, including Rahul Gandhi, have lost. Rahul lost Amethi in UP but won in Wayanad in Kerala. His mother and former Congress President Sonia Gandhi managed to make it in Rae Bareily in UP. This is the first time Rahul has lost Amethi since he began contesting elections in 2004. His sister, Priyanka Vadra, who was made Congress General Secretary in charge of UP. She did not contest but did not succeed reviving the party in UP either.
In Odisha, out of the 21 seats, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) won 4, the BJP-NDA 3, and Congress-UPA 1. The BJD was leading in most seats though.
South Provides Silver Lining
However, good news came to the Congress-UPA from South India where it swept the polls in Kerala. In Tamil Nadu its ally, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led coalition, won 37 out of 39 seats.
The BJP-NDA as well as the Congress-UPA were defeated in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana too. In Andhra Pradesh the Telugu Desam was surprised by the showing of the YSR Congress Party led by Jaganmohan Reddy.In Telegana, the Telengana Rashtriya Samithi re-affirned its hold over the people. The TRS had agitated for the creation of Telegana State, a long standing demand of the people of the area.
In the South, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Sikkim, local factors appeared to have played a role and the regional parties were in the running here rather than national parties like the BJP or the Congress. The issues which concerned the Southern voters were different from those which concerned voters in the North, West and East.
Will Rahul Resign?
Rahul Gandhi has said that the question of his continuing as Congress President will be decided by the Working Committee whenever it meets. He has accepted the results gracefully without raising issues like tampering with Electronic Voting Machines.
(The featured image at the top shows the architects of the BJP-NDA victory – Narendra Modi and Amit Shah)
Colombo, May 24 (newsin.asia): Responding to the joint statement issued by the United Nations Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng and the United Nations Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect Karen Smith on May 13, 2019, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York Ambassador Dr Rohan Perera stated that their prejudiced” statement only serves to sensationalize” issues at a time when the government is taking stringent measures to maintain law and order and quell unrest in the interest of safety of all.
The statements of the UN officials skews the situation on the ground and interprets post-April 21 events through a narrow prism of stereotypical labels, while disregarding the deeper and more nuanced issues at play,” Dr.Perera said.
Full Text of Lankan Statement
The Government of Sri Lanka has carefully reviewed your joint statement of 13 May 2019, issued as a note to correspondents, where you have expressed alarm on the ‘growing acts of violence on the basis of religion’ in Sri Lanka. While noting your concerns, we were taken aback by your oversimplified narrative of events that are nuanced and complex in nature.
For the past decade, the people of Sri Lanka had been enjoying their hard-won peace and freedoms, and had embarked on the arduous path of reconciliation and national healing after nearly three decades of struggling against separatist terrorism. As has been perpetrated by ruthless terrorist groups inspired by ISIL/ Da’esh with global reach in many parts of the world, the horrendous Easter Sunday attacks were intended to create division among us and destroy the very fabric of our multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural society, and deal an intentional blow to our economy. All peace-loving citizens of Sri Lanka are still trying to come to terms with the shock and aftermath.
While we mourn the loss of innocent lives, the support and solidarity from our friends in the international community, including the UN Secretary-General, have been overwhelming. We were reminded that we are fighting a common adversary in terrorism, and its associated manifestations of radicalization and violent extremism, which had taken many innocent lives from across many parts of the world in recent times.
In this context, it is quite insensitive and ill-conceived that you did not consider it important to share your concerns with the Sri Lankan government first, before going public with your statement. This would have also been in keeping with the key objectives of your respective mandates, i.e. to provide early warning and advocacy. We are particularly disappointed that your statement comes at a time when Sri Lanka has been following a well-acknowledged open and constructive engagement with the UN System and its human rights mechanism, including with the special procedures and mandate holders for the past several years. Eight such Special Procedures have visited Sri Lanka in the last four years which ranked among a handful of countries with regard to accommodating such engagement. In this context and spirit, we would have welcomed any constructive criticism or observation from your offices as well. Your prejudiced action only serves to sensationalize issues at a time the government is taking stringent measures to maintain law and order and quell unrest in the interest of safety of all.
Adama Dieng
I am constrained to state that your statement demonstrates a limited understanding of events and is an expression of preconceived opinions. By stating that the special advisors noted a recent spate of attacks against Muslim and Christian communities in Sri Lanka, a majority Buddhist country”, and continuing that the recent violence in Sri Lanka has highlighted a growing influence of nationalists and extremist views of identity in the Asia Region, putting religious minorities at risk”, your statement generalizes events and mischaracterizes facts, which is irresponsible as it is dangerous, and does not conform with the independent nature and credibility of your offices.
Indeed, even the conflation of the Easter Sunday attacks that killed over 250 of our loved ones, mostly from Sri Lanka’s Catholic community, as well as 45 foreign visitors to Sri Lanka, and the swiftly quelled communal violence during the weekend of 11 May, is unexpected from your august offices. It was made manifestly clear that the world recognized that the Easter Sunday attacks were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists, having been influenced and inspired by ISIS, and were not a result of any local conditions. These attacks, mainly against Christians at prayer, form part of global trends of radicalization and extremism.
Karen Smith
The almost two and half million Muslims who comprise about 10% of the 22 million population of Sri Lanka have lived in harmony amongst the Buddhist majority (over 70%) and other groups for over several centuries. Even amidst the gravest provocations during the 30 years separatist terrorist armed conflict in Sri Lanka, where sacred Buddhist and Islamic religious places were attacked and devotees butchered, religion has not been a cause for violence. Hence, the above statement skews the situation on the ground and interprets post-April 21 events through a narrow prism of stereotypical labels, while disregarding the deeper and more nuanced issues at play.
It is pertinent to place on record that a number of precautionary measures were put in place by the government immediately following the attacks, such as, providing additional security protection to all places of worship, limiting access to social media to halt the spread of false information for brief periods of sensitivity, and banning full face covering that hinders identification. It is regrettable that, in spite of these measures, a handful of isolated incidents broke out in some parts of the country causing the tragic death of one person. Within a few hours, the Government took swift action to thwart any escalation of violence and perpetrators were promptly arrested and subject to due process.
Sri Lanka is indeed a ‘pluralistic society’, and freedom of religion or belief, freedom of movement within the country and choice of residence has been guaranteed by the Constitution. Considerable work has been undertaken by the Government also with the support of the UN system to preserve inter-faith and inter-religious harmony and inclusivity, to which you too have alluded. This was amply demonstrated when there were calls made not only by political leadership but also by the Archbishop of Colombo and other Buddhist, Hindu and Islam clergy, for peace and non-violence among communities.
Wittingly or unwittingly, one should be careful not to contribute to diminishing the enormity of the acts of terror that shook Sri Lanka, to a domestic scuffle between religious bigots, or taint it as a result of local discriminatory practices that perpetuate religious intolerance and violence”, which is furthest from the ground reality. Given that this is clearly an offspring or part of global terror network, better understanding and solidarity of all partners are of essence to eradicate this menace.Ill-timed statements from responsible authorities will only serve to strengthen the hands of parties with vested interests and extremist elements determined to veer Sri Lanka from the path of peace and development. The need of the hour is for measured advice and support of experts of your good offices to help clarify matters in order for Sri Lanka and all her people to face new challenges arising from violent extremism.
We seek your understanding and support at this difficult time for our country and all its people.
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