The Maligawatte police have found 56 swords in a well in the Maligawatte area in Colombo, today (08).
https://youtu.be/i-bt-Ozbeh8
Reportedly, 44 Chinese manufactured swords, 12 old swords, 49 knives, 26 CDs with covers with Arabic writing letters on them, a firearm, and a narcotic drug called ‘Ice’ have been found inside a 20-feet deep well near a mosque in Maligawatte.
However, the Ada Derana correspondent, who had gone to report search operation conducted by Navy divers, had been obstructed by a certain group who had been at the scene.
Meanwhile, 16 knives had been found when inspecting a suspicious parcel abandoned at the Arnold Ratnayake Road in Maradana. The parcel was found by the CMC employees at the Sudewella worksite.
Furthermore, a stock of sharp weapons including swords was found hidden among clothes inside the cupboard of a house in Kumbukkandura area. Theldeniya police stated two persons were arrested with this regard.
Eleven knives including Italian-manufactured knives have been found near the Richmond Hill by the Special Crimes Division of the Galle Police.
The person, at whose house the knives were found, has also been arrested by the Police.
Several suspicious items were recovered from sugarcane cultivation belonging to Pelwatte sugar factory.
Accordingly, 5 walkie-talkies, uniforms worn by security details of VIPs and some other items were found during a search which was carried out based on the information received from the driver of sugar factory’s chief operations officer.
The Chief Operations Officer Surath Amadeen yesterday (07) held a secretive discussion with 13 of fellow Muslim employees at the factory and had hindered other employees from entering the room where the discussion took place.
Owing to this incident, unrest emerged at the factory and the officers of Buttala Police and Police Special Task Force had arrived at the site to curtail the tense situation.
The Buttala police officers interrogated the chief operations officer, while the Police STF had searched his house.
Amadeen’s driver was taken into the custody of CID yesterday.
A stock of items including swords, knives, drugs, a firearm and bullets have been recovered from the bottom of a public well located in close proximity to a mosque near the R. Premadasa stadium in Maligawatta, Colombo.
Ada Derana reporter said that the discovery was made during a search operation carried out by security forces personnel in the Maligawatta area today (8).
He said that a total of 58 swords, including 46 new swords (with red logo) and 12 old swords, 4 knives, 26 CDs, a small pistol, several bullets and a packet of crystal meth also known as ‘ice’ were found at the location.
The items were recovered with the assistance of police divers.
No arrests have been made over the finding while Maligawatta Police is conducting further investigations.
Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa today urged Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee to examine the proposed Counter-Terrorism Act.
Issuing a statement, he says that opposition has been mounting against the proposed act from every part of society and that several major political parties represented in parliament have already voiced strong objections to it.
Considering this situation, the Opposition Leader makes a special request to the Prime Minister to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee to carry out a broad study and review of the proposed act.
The Police Special Investigation Unit (SIU) has commenced an investigation to determine as to whether any errors had been committed by the police in granting bail to 9 suspects arrested at the Wellampitiya copper factory, which is believed to be linked to the Easter Sunday terror attacks.
Mohamed Ibrahim Insaf Ahmed, the suicide bomber responsible for the blast at the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo on April 21, is the owner of the copper factory at Wellampitiya.
On April 22, nine employees of the factory were arrested by Wellampitiya Police and remanded until May 06 after being produced at the Colombo Magistrate’s Court.
When the case was taken up on May 06, the court released the nine suspects on bail while it had been widely reported that the suspects were granted bail due to an error or oversight on the part of the officers of the Wellampitiya Police Station.
Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said that the Police Headquarters’ SIU has launched an investigation into this.
Speaking at a press conference in Colombo today (8), he said that if it is confirmed through the investigation that an error or oversight by a Wellampitiya police officer had led to this, strict action will be taken against the said officer.
While highlighting the importance of a united leadership in Sri Lanka, former US Ambassador Robert O Blake Jr yesterday said the incumbent government should establish a high-level group of technocrats similar to the one existed when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the Defence Secretary, to prevent terror attacks in the country.
The former ambassador, who is now Senior Director (India and South Asia) of McLarty Associates, said this while delivering a presentation titled US Foreign Policy towards China and South Asia and what it means for Sri Lanka at the BMICH in Colombo.
The event was organised by the Pathfinder Foundation in partnership with the Joint Apparel Association Forum Sri Lanka (JAAFSL)
Mr Blake said having a high-level group of technocrats in Sri Lanka could definitely benefit the country and that Sri Lanka could learn from the mistakes the US have done before and after the 9/11 attacks.
In fact, Sri Lanka did have such a group during the war when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was Defence Secretary and he personally shared that and made sure that all different branches of the Intelligence of which there are many in this country, share information and then sharing that information up to the senior levels making sure that such attacks don’t take place.
So I think that’s a very important thing that the government should think about in establishing a group like that,” he said. (
Since that Easter
Sunday, I have been wanting to pen a few words expressing my feelings towards
all, who suffered. Lives of nearly three hundred worshipers, their
children and scores of foreign tourists were snuffed out amidst waves of flying
shrapnel and fumes of sulphur.
And each time I
tried, my thoughts always lost its way, blinded by the fiery spectacle of
agony, carnage and death that must have reigned at those locations, following
the blasts.
Then something snapped in me as I kept reading and listening to what some of our Diyawanna oya nincompoops and their supposedly duty-bound appointees had to say about the mayhem.
I do not want to
elaborate on what some of them said, for they have been on all forms of media,
for almost two weeks now.
What actually infuriated me is the fact that how inconsiderate and insensitive have become the mindsets of our politicians towards people, who have put them wherever they are now.
In spite of three
warnings from our big neighbour, no one seemed to have given two hoots about a
possible impending disaster with people caught right in the middle of it. Some
were forewarned even a week before, some were stopped from going to church by
way of paternal advise, some thought that it was going to be not big enough to
make a noise about and so on and so forth. Sadly, all that however, did not
reach the public, the relevant religious personalities and others concerned,
for which the hapless and the innocent ended up paying the ultimate price.
Aren’t all these
acts of covering up and subterfuge acts of sacrilege on what one promised and
his unbound duty to people, when one was elected or duly appointed by those
people’s representatives?
And did we have any security-council meetings? Yes we apparently did, though without an IGP and a PM. And their excuse is that they were not invited. Isn’t it inconceivable that none of them bothered to find out why? Or that it didn’t occur to them that the safety and the security of the country and its people matter first, sits at the top, even if it means to force your way into the sessions and demand why? No. Sadly some spines are made of bone, just bare, brittle bone and nothing else.
And to see some of
them chuckle, while calmly sitting on those comfy chairs holding media
briefings is mind-boggling and downright ugly, few even seemingly savouring the
fact that they somehow survived, so that they can continue to tell people their
fairy tales, actually made me almost throw up in disgust. Or is this apparent
nonchalance and pretentious (obviously) stand of showing up nerve,
a facade to hide their fear and failure?
Dante in his ‘La
Commedia (Divine Comedy)’ writes about hell, purgatory and heaven. The bombers
were probably dreaming about the last as they blew themselves up.
And as for our own,
who knew about it in advance and still did nothing about it, I am not sure how
Dante would have judged them.
Government invoked emergency with two intentions.One is to
carry out raids and inspections , not only to arrest culprits but to arrest the
situation of excallating violence.Secondly to keep public indoor so that
skirmishes in the streets are minimised.
What happened in Negombo is a clear example, where people
were trying to lake the law into their hands.
Yesterday parents decided not to comply wither government
ruling that children should attend schools.Percentage of children attending
schools was abmisible.
It was not a strike per say but ignoring requests by the
government.
As per the laws in Sri Lanka it is a must that children
artend to schools.
This may be just a start of Noncompliance with the rules
and regulations because people may not be trusting what government tells.
Next action may be that people will refuse to obey rules
related to day to day to life.
People may dump garbage every where.People May drive without
complying traffic rules.People may not obey judiciary and law and
order.People may stop paying-taxes
Government should establish trust among people..So far
government has failed.
Hats off to armed forces for controlling the situation.
Yesterday we saw how His Emminence Cardinal visiting Negombo
and passifying aggrieved People.
Main-idea is that People should at least listen to religious
leaders rather than rulers.
But none of the politicians like crying MPs in the area
dared to go to the location!
If and When there are skirmishes in the areas of
predominantly Buddhist ,have you ever seen any Chief Sanganayake visiting the
areas and talk to both parties to avoid excallations.
Catholics may not be trusting government but they trust
religious leaders.
Cardinal just preached what Jesus Christ advocated.
As a Buddhist I am ashamed to note that most of our Buddhist
Leading Monks never go to people.
They want people to come to them.
Whenever they give TV interviews ,they talk aggressively
leading to more and more discontent.
It is high time for the Government to impose Emergency Law
in full force and gag the press so that they do not aggravate the Non
Compliance with rules and regulations.
All the prelates leading Malwatu,Asgiri ,Rammana ,Siam
Nikaya’s etc should visit the areas in turns and preach non violence.
No politicians should accompany them.
I am sure that people will abide by the rules after such
action.
If an attack happened in a Buddhist Area in Sri Lanka there
would have been a Killing Field” like in Cambodia.
Various interviews shown in TV and radio and published
newspapers should be stopped with social media gagging.
Army with the help of clergy should visit people should take
the lead and let politicians sleep for few weeks”
‘The residual historical hostility against India was certainly a factor,’ says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters
The Indian election campaign of 2019 will go down as the most negative ever in our electoral history.
Both sides have harped more on the negatives of the other side than their own positives.
These elections have seen political parties running to the Election Commission of India virtually every other day with complaints against each other.
It reminds me of the bad old days of Indian cricket when the team, in doldrums, was fond of appealing frequently to the umpires!
Political parties have cynically vitiated the process in such a way that the Election Commission’s credibility has been eroded. This will have long-term repercussions for Indian democracy that has always prided itself on a free and fair electoral process.More from around the web
These Rare Photos Show What It’s Really Like To Live In IranDailyForest
Homeowner Over 60? Don’t Fall For The Equity Release MythsTelegraph Equity Release
Be that as it may, one very tragic consequence of this gamesmanship has been the recent terror attack in Sri Lanka.
As a frequent visitor to and long time student of Sri Lanka’s internal dynamics, one is well aware of the undercurrent of ‘anti-Indianism’ in the Sri Lankan polity.
The roots of this go back to the first millennium CE. Emperor Rajendra Chola created a vast empire in South East Asia and invaded Sri Lanka 17 times. During these invasions he destroyed the Buddhist shrines of Anuradhapura and built a Shiva temple at the site.
Sri Lankans have never forgotten this history and were and are suspicious of Indian motives. At the peak of the Indian Peace Keeping Force operations in 1987-1988, then Sri Lankan prime minister Ranasinghe Premadasa even supplied arms and ammunition to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to fight the Indian Army.
There was widespread belief in Sri Lanka that India would never withdraw from Sri Lanka.
The anti-Indian feeling has abated somewhat since then as India kept its pledge and withdrew its forces in 1990. It is another matter that the same Premadasa was a victim of the LTTE.
After the LTTE’s defeat 10 years ago, Sri Lanka has seen much desired peace. The terror bombing on Easter Sunday, April 21, shattered this decade of peace. The ease with which the terror attacks were carried out revealed that Sri Lanka had let its guard down.
What is shocking is that almost a month before the gruesome attacks, Indian intelligence had given a detailed warning that included the likely targets and dates. Not just that, India also provided Sri Lanka with detailed addresses and telephone numbers of the would-be suicide bombers.
This was no vague ‘alert’, but a detailed plot of the terror attacks. Sri Lankan officials completely ignored the warnings and took no action. As a result, close to 250 people lost their lives.
Why did the Sri Lankans disregard the timely warning? The residual historical hostility against India was certainly a factor.
Another equally important factor was the disarray in the Sri Lankan government apparatus due to the ongoing ‘cold war’ between the president and prime minister.
It is also a matter of record that the Sri Lankan establishment has long been hobnobbing with Pakistan and all manner of jihadi outfits to ‘balance’ the Indian influence on Sri Lanka.
Despite all that, it still begs the question as to why the Sri Lankans ignored the inputs of Indian intelligence.
The answer lies in the constant barrage of propaganda in the section of the Indian media that depicts the current Indian government as anti-Muslim.
Lending its ears to the anti-Muslim conspiracy theorists of the Indian media, the Sri Lankans assumed the warnings of impending terror attacks were part of a diabolic plan by Indian Rightists.
From this ‘conviction’ to ignoring timely inputs about the terror attack was a logical step as far as Sri Lanka was concerned.
The damage these attacks have caused to the Lankan economy is tremendous. Tourism, the mainstay of the Lankan economy, has taken a hit and it will take great efforts to recreate confidence in minds of potential tourists.
The Sri Lankan terrorists’s links to India have become visible. India can no longer view its southern parts as immune to the virus of ISIS ideology.
ISIS’s statement that the Sri Lankan attacks were revenge for what happened in Syria to ISIS is laughable to any sane individual. But to its ideologically motivated fanatic followers it makes perfect sense.
Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) has been a Sri Lanka watcher since 1989.
Janey Lowes, 30, from Barnard Castle, moved to Sri Lanka to help sick animals
Admits she used to be ‘self obsessed’ and loved partying and shopping
Young vet set up veterinary charity in the country for abandoned street hounds
Worries she won’t find love because she’s dedicated to the centre 24/7
Janey was hailed as a ‘fantastic role model’ to young girls by presenter Fogle
A young vet who swapped a life of clubbing and partying in the UK to set up a charity to help dying street dogs in Sri Lanka says she’s worried she’ll never find love.
Janey Lowes, 30, originally from Barnard Castle, County Durham, visited the country while on holiday aged 26 and was shocked by how many hounds were abandoned on the island.
The vet, who is dubbed the embodiment of ‘Dr. Dolittle’ in tonight’s Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, decided to leave her life in Britain behind and move to Sri Lanka.
But despite seemingly living in paradise and running a successful charity, Janey says she feels ‘isolated’ in the country.
Janey, 30, from County Durham, appears on tonight’s episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild. The presenter dubs the girl a modern day ‘Doctor Dolittle’
The former party girl has transformed her life by moving to Sri Lanka and setting up her own veterinary charity to treat some of the country’s millions of stray dogs
The stunning woman admits she’s single and doesn’t think anyone ‘could hack’ being in a relationship with her.ADVERTISING
She says: ‘Everyone loves the idea of an independent girl going off and doing her own thing. Guys say they find it attractive, but actually the reality of it sucks.’
She adds: ‘I don’t wanna be a crazy dog lady left on the shelf. It’s definitely a specific taste people are going to have to have.’
Janey had dreamed of being a vet from a young age, and after graduating from university, she worked for two-and-a-half years but found she didn’t feel she was doing enough to help animals.
The stunning 30-year-old admits she’s single, as she spends almost all of her time at work, and says that she doesn’t feel men ‘can hack’ her lifestyle
Janey set up the charity, which now has 17 staff, in Sri Lanka, after visiting while backpacking around the world
She admits in the programme, which airs tonight on Channel 5 at 9pm, that she used to be quite ‘self-obsessed’ and buy a new outfit to go out on the town every weekend.
While travelling for a year, she fell in love with Sri Lanka and their millions of street dogs.
Janey moved to the country and set up a charity, WECare Worldwide, buying a building on the outskirts of the town Talalla and converting it into a veterinary practice.
She admits the country has a chronic problem with their stray dogs, with an estimated one to three million animals roaming the streets
She admits that the country has a chronic problem with their stray dogs, with an estimated one to three million animals roaming the streets.
Janey revealed that street dogs often have a food source, but aren’t necessarily owned by anyone.
She is so dedicated to the work that she’s available pretty much 24/7 to the centre, admitting: ‘It’s just that here there’s not really another option. We have to be available all the time.’
The 30-year-old admitted she has loved animals from a young age, and had always dreamed of becoming a vet
Janey grew up in County Durham, but moved to Sri Lanka two years after graduating from university to set up her charity
Her charity now has 17 members of staff, including five vets, three nurses and several trainees.
While on the job she allows herself to be bitten by terrified dogs and has even contracted mange from the stray dogs she treats.
Ben is stunned by the infrastructure she has in place, given how remote Sri Lanka can feel.
He tells the camera: ‘What’s amazing is she was willing to give up everything in the UK to set this up from scratch. She’s clearly very ambitious.’
Ben is shocked by the diverse range of injuries that Janey treats, including this puppy who had been bitten by a snake
Janey moved to Sri Lanka and brought this property on the outskirts of the coastal town Talalla, in the south of the country. She converted it into a veterinary practice
The presenter joins Janey at work and is shocked by several of the cases she encounters, which he deems worse than anything he’s ever seen in the UK – including one where Janey removes more than 100 maggots from a dog’s ear.
In one scene, a puppy is brought into the veterinary clinic after being bitten by a snake.
Luckily Janey is able to identify what breed the reptile was – a hump-nosed pit viper, whose venom could be fatal to the young pup.
Janey is able to save the tiny puppy from the snake bite, and it’s not long before it’s looking more lively again
Ben is stunned by the young woman’s attitude to the animals, and dubs her a modern day ‘Dr. Dolittle’
The wounded dog requires several injections of pain relief as well as a course of antibiotics.
Janey admits she also finds the financial aspect of the business ‘a massive headache’.
Keen for the centre to live up to the rigorous standards of the UK, she reveals: ‘We haemorrhage money. It’s tough at times.
The vet also called the financial aspect of her business ‘a massive headache’ and said they can ‘haemorrhage’ money at times
Janey says she’s keen to expand her charity across other countries in Asia in an effort to help more animals
‘It’s really expensive to do things not only properly, but in a country where everyone assumes things are cheap when they’re not.’
She continues by saying she’s keen to expand her charity into other countries to help more animals across Asia.
And despite her worries, she describes the country as ‘home’, admitting: ‘I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.’
COLOMBO, May 7 (Xinhua) — Sri Lankan security forces have arrested all those directly linked to the Easter terror explosions on April 21, Acting Police Chief Chandana Wickramaratne said in a special statement here on Tuesday.
Wickramaratne said the police had identified all those involved in the terror attacks and many of them had committed suicide when security forces had attempted to arrest them.
He said the two bomb experts involved in the terrorist attacks had also been killed and forces had seized all the explosives and bombs which had been stored for future attacks.
“We request the public to resume their daily activities without fear. Search operations will continue throughout the island, but all those directly involved in the attacks have been arrested or are dead. The security forces will continue to provide security to all its citizens,” the police chief said.
He said that tight security would remain in places of worship and security forces were also conducting a program to create awareness about safety and security in all schools.
More than 250 people were killed and over 500 injured in the Easter Sunday explosions which targeted three churches and three luxury hotels.
KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka — The ringleader of terrorist attacks that killed 257 people on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka was a cruel and stubborn man who does not represent National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), said his former friend and now leader of the outlawed Islamist group.
[Mohammed Zahran Hashim] has two behavioral personalities,” Mohamed Yusef Thaufeek, NTJ’s leader, told VICE News. One is stubbornness. And he has a tendency to lie. He has both behaviors. No matter what you tell, he never listens, and never accepts it. He has that type of behavior.”ADVERTISEMENT
Until Easter Sunday, NTJ was just one of many peripheral hard-line religious groups in the Buddhist-majority nation. Following a strict Wahabist interpretation of Islam, members were on the police radar due to skirmishes between other religious groups and acts of vandalism against Buddhist statues, but the group itself was not a major security concern to lawmakers and would have been unknown to most Sri Lankans.
Now, it’s been outlawed by the government and is at the center of a sprawling investigation into one of the deadliest terrorist attacks since 9/11. It can thank its founder, Mohammed Zahran Hashim, who allegedly planned the Easter attack on several churches and hotels with help from ISIS.
In claiming responsibility for the attacks, ISIS released a video in which Zahran is seen alongside eight other people pledging allegiance to the terror group. Later, authorities confirmed that Zahran was one of the suicide bombers who targeted upmarket hotels in the island nation’s capital, Colombo.
Thaufeek does not deny that the attacks were committed by the founder and former members of NTJ (Hashim established the group in 2012), or that a further suicide bomb that killed 15 people was committed by Zahran’s brothers.
He does, however, reject the idea that those attacks are representative of the group he now leads.
This is not a terrorist movement. It is an organization under Sri Lankan sovereignty. National Thowheed Jamath does religious and social services,” said Thaufeek. He pointed to a letter written in Tamil dated Dec. 24, 2017, which he claims is evidence that Zaharan was dismissed from NTJ.ADVERTISEMENT
He said it was the events leading up to Zahran’s dismissal from the group that appear to signal the beginning of his journey into violent extremism. Earlier that year, following violent riots against Sufi worshippers in Kattankudy in which several people were arrested, Zahran became a target of the police. He soon fled Kattankudy but then began releasing Facebook videos.
A few months went by, and after that, his talking style begins to change,” said Thoufeek. He starts talking against the Sri Lankan government. He said the Sri Lankan government’s parliamentary system is useless, that the court system is no longer useful. People couldn’t believe that he used to be part of their movement and is now saying all these things. There seems to be such a drastic change. So what we did was right away we joined forces and decided to officially dismiss him from the organization.”
Zahran’s Facebook rants concerned others in Colombo. Hilmy Ahmed, vice president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, said he had alerted the authorities to Zahran’s violent rhetoric.
Referring to one video, Hilmy said, He is basically calling for the killing of all people who do not believe in Islam. It’s hate speech. They would have charged him if they’d found him. They couldn’t find him.”
Missed or ignored warnings by the government have been the focus of intense debate and scrutiny since the deadly attacks on Easter Sunday. In January, a warning came that radical Islamists were stockpiling weapons and detonators, then three more warnings from Indian Intelligence came in April alone. The first on April 4, followed by another on April 11, then again just hours before the bombings on the 20th. Each with more details of targets, names and even the suspects’ movements.
Was the attack on Sri Lanka an example of the Islamic State’s opportunism?
Why did the Islamic State terror group choose Sri Lanka, and a persecuted minority in it, as the target for one of its deadliest attacks ever? This question puzzles many, given that this tiny island nation has largely been non-aligned in its foreign policy and is nowhere on the global radar of the fight against terror. What’s more, Christians here have had cordial relations with the local Muslim community, which, along with the Christian minority, has been under attack by fringe Buddhist extremist groups.
This question, being raised by security analysts and experts, is perhaps presumptuous, and therefore not particularly helpful in making sense of what really happened. We should perhaps first ask, did the Islamic State, or ISIS, really look at the world map and say we need to attack Sri Lanka?”
The Sri Lankan government has blamed the attacks on a local radicalized group, called National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), a splintered faction of the hard-line Islamist organisation Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath. On April 21, NTJ’s nine suicide bombers, including a woman, struck two Catholic churches in and around Colombo and an evangelical church in the eastern city of Batticaloa as well as three Colombo hotels frequented by Western tourists, killing at least 257 people, mostly Christian worshipers, and injuring around 500 more.Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.
Of course, the sophistication involved in the attacks points to external involvement, and the government has said that the NTJ had ties with ISIS, whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has also claimed in a video message that the attacks were to avenge the recent defeat of his fighters in the eastern city of Baghouz in Syria, the outfit’s last known hideout in the Levant region.
At least one of the bombers, identified as Jameel Mohammed Abdul Latheef, went to ISIS recruiters in Syria in 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps Latheef reached out to the group not too long after it proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate with al-Baghdadi as the caliph. At the time, its commanders and fighters were releasing videos of hostages in orange jumpsuits being beheaded. The messaging through such images was meant to attract Muslim youth for recruitment and training. ISIS reportedly trained hundreds of foreigners in Iraq and Syria when they still had a territory to rule.
However, having been driven out of Iraq and Syria four years later, thanks to a military intervention by a U.S.-led international coalition, ISIS lost its ability to carry out direct attacks. So it began using home-grown killers to carry out not-so-sophisticated attacks, such as in Europe. It also continued using encrypted messaging platforms and other online communication methods, including social media, to promote its anti-West/anti-Christian narrative and to urge its supporters around the world to launch attacks on suggested targets, irrespective of local communal dynamics in the attacker’s home country.
Therefore, a better question to ask at this stage is, why were some Sri Lankan Muslims attracted to ISIS?
This would lead us to the NTJ’s formation in 2016, when the planning for the attacks and the establishment of sleeper cells and other preparations must have begun. The bombers reportedly used a 43,500-square-foot walled terror training camp in the eastern town of Kattankudy, near the home of the prime suspect, identified as Zahran Hashim.
The terms Thowheed” and Kattankudy” should ring a bell with any Sri Lanka watcher.
In the 1980s, Salafist Islam, a version of which many believe supports violent extremism, began to spread in Sri Lanka in Kattankudy. An ultra-orthodox Salafi group is often referred to as a Thowheed,” meaning monotheism and also written as Tawhid.” Its followers in Sri Lanka initially had intra-faith tensions, including with Sufis, whom they called apostates. The worst episode of persecution of Sufis came when the property of their organization, Thareekathul Mufliheen, was vandalized and houses of more than 100 Sufis were burned down in December 2006. Possessing arms was easier during the time due to the then-ongoing civil war in the east and the north.
Preoccupied with the threat from the separatist Tamil Tigers, who had officially pulled out of peace talks indefinitely a few months earlier, Mahinda Rajapaksa, then the president of Sri Lanka, apparently saw the growth of Salafism as an unimportant matter.
Rajapaksa’s government also overlooked the potential long-term threat from an existing sense of alienation among Muslims, who had been under attack in the east and the north by the Tamil Tigers. Whether the tensions between Muslims and the Tamil Tigers were organic or organized by some previous governments remains debatable.
The International Crisis Group noted in a report in May 2017 that [s]ecurity forces were implicated in several violent confrontations between Muslims and Tamils. One of the worst was an attack on the (Tamil) village of Karaitivu in April 1985, when Muslim youths, apparently with the support of the security forces, went on a rampage, killing several people and burning hundreds of houses. Thereafter, violent incidents became relatively common between Tamil militants and Muslims. Some Muslims were armed by the government for their own protection but they were also involved in vigilante action against neighboring Tamils, provoking more reprisals.”
After the Sri Lankan government defeated the Tamil Tigers militarily in 2009, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives, according to human rights groups, tensions between Muslims and sections of Buddhists emerged.
In 2012, a Buddhist extremist group, Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force or BBS), was created allegedly with the support of some influential politicians, apparently to promote Buddhist nationalism among the majority Singhalese community. It could be seen as an attempt to portray the government’s victory over the largely Hindu Tamil Tigers as a reason for national pride and thereby absolve those responsible for the killing of civilians. Several attacks against mosques and anti-Muslim campaigns as well as attacks on churches and Christians have been attributed to the BBS since then. At least in the initial years after the end of the war, Sri Lanka looked like an ethnocracy” with the dominion of Sinhalese Buddhists, which further deepened the sense of alienation among Muslims.
While ISIS claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings – as the bombers on their own declared allegiance to the embattled terror group – Sri Lanka’s targeting” was most likely accidental or opportunistic from the point of view of ISIS, as parts of the island nation had become a fertile ground for indoctrination. And that gives a stronger reason for the world to condemn the successive governments of Sri Lanka for allowing that to happen – and not just for ignoring warnings about the suicide bombings issued by foreign intelligence agencies prior to Easter Sunday.
Syed Ata Hasnain a retired lieutenant-general, is a former commander of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps.
Most important, India’s Muslims need leaders of substance who can guide, lead and advise.
Many think that India has escaped the wrath of ISIS due to the inherent strength of our plurality. (Photo: AP
The suicide terror bombings in Sri Lanka took that country and the entire world by utter surprise. The Islamic State (ISIS) took its time claiming responsibility, but once it did the puzzle started to fall into place. These attacks came at a time when ISIS was considered defeated in the field and vanquished as an entity; from Fallujah to Mosul and then Idlib in Syria, it lost ground but retained its networked state and ability to direct a rump campaign outside the physical precincts of its presumed caliphate”. The expected surge in Somalia and Nigeria, where the surrogate Al Shabab and Boko Haram exist, did not emerge. Neither did the efforts to find space in the Philippines in conjunction with the Abu Sayaf group. The Taliban’s hold over Afghanistan’s ungoverned parts is too strong for the ISIS to make successful incursions, as is the hold of disparate radical groups in Pakistan who don’t wish to act as surrogates. Mindful of all this, it is likely that ISIS is looking to break fresh ground in order to remain relevant. Its network-based presence remains sufficiently threatening to the world, where the vulnerability of minds continues to exist. ISIS therefore is in search of areas where unexpected emergence may help through a sufficiently clandestine setup and where the intelligence networks may yet be weak. Many believe that India has little potential for an ISIS emergence because even in its heyday four years ago, a very small ratio of India’s 180 million Muslims got radicalised enough to take the plunge to travel to the caliphate” territory. The presence of experienced Indian intelligence agencies whose track record, especially after 26/11, has largely been without blemish may also be an input into such an assumption. However, the ISIS wishlist may include a region or nation with democratic and secular principles of existence with a base of Muslim presence. That immediately enhances India’s vulnerability. The starting point from Sri Lanka, where a small minority of Muslims exists, could be commencement from the fringe. The level of penetration into India has somehow always been questioned. That may no longer be entirely valid.
While the Tamil Nadu-based Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ) may be in strict denial of any linkage to the National Thowheed Jamath, that was allegedly responsible for the Sri Lanka carnage, there can be no denial about the fact that extremist radical ideology of the ISIS type has been spreading around the world through the Internet and by word of mouth influence of unmonitored returnees, not necessarily only from the ISIS badlands. Investigations in Sri Lanka are throwing up undiscovered networks involved with word of mouth influence, although admittedly the ISIS linkage has not fully been established despite the claims made. If ISIS has been scouting for other potential locations to showcase its relevance, there can be enough locations all over India as the spread of Muslims is not restricted to any one state. Merely the presence of Muslims is not an invitation for terrorism to establish root; such belief is just as bad as labelling all Muslims as potential terrorists. Vilifying any one segment of Muslims too is counter-productive. Radicals are those who believe in the right of existence of only their ideology and sanction the use of violence to convert all others to their belief.
This is best illustrated by a captured Pakistani suicide bomber, interviewed on Geo TV, who was questioned on why he believed he was doing something for Islam when all the people killed by his potential act were also fellow Muslims. His answer sums it in the best way. He stated that none of the people who would be killed were actually Muslims because true Muslims were only those who thought and followed the faith the way he and his colleagues did. That is an actual hardcore radical of the ISIS variety which the world is battling. There are enough Muslims who are battling them too, but there are also enough confused Muslims around the world who incorrectly think that the ISIS caliphate” is a true caliphate, and that they are duty-bound to support it and fight for it.
Many think that India has escaped the wrath of ISIS due to the inherent strength of our plurality. While the safeguards due to plurality are in place and Indian intelligence agencies have largely marginalised radical groups set up by transnational crime syndicates and many by Pakistan, India is not out of the woods. Nothing signifies that more than the events in Sri Lanka. Indian Muslims are actually different. They are among the few who have had an opportunity to rub shoulders and share lunches with people of every faith. They participate in different religious festivals. There are cities where Hindus and Muslims sit together to decide the routes and timings of processions on days when their festivals clash; such inter-faith bonhomie can rarely be seen anywhere in the world.
Yet with all that, there are maverick elements on both sides who cannot rest in peace or promote the obvious strength of their nation. An organisation such as ISIS thrives on the divisiveness created by both these segments by promoting mutual fears. The politics of divisiveness will always exist in the strongest of societies, especially in open democracies. Morals can never be dictated, they have to be perceived and to expect a hundred per cent of that is utopian. There will always be a threshold dictated by international trends. Strong societies overcome that with hiccups, just as India is currently experiencing. On one hand Pakistan’s strategy works towards promoting that divisiveness in India and then there is the phenomenon of an organisation such as ISIS. Their interests are quite different, but the methodology may actually be the same.
We cannot claim India has firewalled itself against these efforts. There will be elements within who will be influenced by extraneous propaganda, made so much easier today by the existence of the social media. Fake messages and hate messages will continue to rule the ether waves and somewhere they will impact, just as it has happened in Sri Lanka. We have many more returnees from the Gulf than Sri Lanka has. Each one of them cannot be monitored effectively. Thus, sleeper cells do exist to rear their ugly head at opportune moments. We have seen it happen in Bangladesh, and we have now experienced it in Sri Lanka.
What is required is not clichéd advice but effective monitoring. The intelligence agencies have their job cut out for them. The poll rhetoric has created divisiveness and votebanks are obvious, but this cannot be allowed to convert into threats against India’s internal security. The clergy bears a greater responsibility towards the correct interpretation of the faith and there are enough sane members of it and institutions in India who can play a positive role to offset the mischief that both Pakistan and organisations such as ISIS have in mind.
Most important, India’s Muslims need leaders of substance who can guide, lead and advise. The levels of ignorance within the community are extremely high, making it vulnerable to propaganda. Considering the fact that educationally well-qualified people too are seen to be vulnerable, it will need correction from within the community. That can happen only if the absolutely uncalled-for vilification of the community on the basis of unnecessary labelling is also effectively curtailed.
Syed Ata Hasnain, a retired lieutenant-general, is a former commander of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps. He is also associated with the Vivekananda International Foundation and the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.
On April 21, multiple suicide attacks on churches and high-end hotels in Sri Lanka killed 253 people, including 40 foreigners, and injured at least 500 others (Sunday Times, April 28). The suicide bombings, which are among the deadliest terrorist attacks in the world since the September 11 attacks in the United States, have drawn attention to the Islamic State (IS) group’s links with local radicals in the island.
A day after the attacks, the Sri Lankan government spokesman said that a little-known local Islamist group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), had carried out the suicide bombings. But the NTJ was not acting alone, he said, adding that the government would investigate whether the group had international support” (Ceylon Today, April 22).
The Easter Sunday suicide bombings were complex and displayed a high-level of co-ordination. They required resources and expertise beyond the capability of the NTJ, an outfit that until recently was known for its inflammatory rhetoric and vandalism of Buddhist statues rather than serial suicide bombings (New Indian Express, April 22). Ongoing investigations indicate that IS supported local Islamist radicals in the attacks. While the NTJ and another little-known Sri Lanka-based Islamist group, Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim (JMI) provided the manpower, the Islamic State’s input included ideological inspiration, expertise in bomb-making, and perhaps even resources,” a senior Sri Lankan police official told Terrorism Monitor. [1]
Islamic State Claims Responsibility
IS claimed responsibility for the attacks two days later. In a statement published by its official news agency, Amaq, it said the attackers are fighters from the Islamic State” (Sunday Times, April 23). A video was also circulated showing eight people, purportedly the Sri Lankan suicide bombers pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. All but one of the bombers has their face covered. The unmasked individual has been identified as Zahran Hashim, the leader of the NTJ, who carried out the attack on the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo (The Hindu, April 25). IS has since identified three more people who blew themselves up during a police raid a week later in Ampara in eastern Sri Lanka (Daily Mirror, April 28).
Subsequently, IS clarified the motivation behind the serial attacks. In a propaganda video released on August 29, al-Baghdadi can be heard describing the attacks in Sri Lanka as vengeance” for its fighters, who were killed defending Baghouz in Syria (Daily Mirror, April 30).
Rising Radicalism
The Sri Lankan suicide bombings came just weeks after the fall of Baghouz. Having lost all its territory, IS was perhaps keen to signal that it remains a potent group. Sri Lanka was a suitable target in this regard. Since the end of the civil war in 2009, Colombo had lowered its guard against terrorist attacks. Further, many Westerners come to the island as tourists, and Sri Lanka has a sizeable Christian population. These factors provided the bombers with soft targets. Importantly, Islamic radicalism was growing in the island, providing IS with foot-soldiers to carry out the attacks.
As in other parts of the world, Muslims in Sri Lanka have been caught in the vortex of radicalism. Wahhabism, a conservative strain of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia and traditionally alien to South Asian Muslims, has been making inroads into the Sri Lankan Muslim community in recent decades (Himal Southasian, April 26). The Saudis have provided scores of Sri Lankan Muslims with scholarships to study in Saudi universities. These students returned home to preach Wahhabi-Salafist teachings, enabling it to take root in the island (Colombo Telegraph, March 27, 2013).
Post-9/11, radical Sri Lankan Muslims became more assertive and more willing to use violence. However, their targets were not the island’s Buddhists, Hindus, or Christians, but Sufis and moderates within the Muslim community (Himal Southasian, April 26). The homes and shrines of Sufis were attacked and Muslims engaging in un-Islamic activity” such as gambling or drinking threatened (Colombo Telegraph, March 27, 2013). It was from this pool of radicals that Hashim and several others, who were drawn towards jihadist ideology, emerged. [2] Hashim is reported to have spent substantial” time in south India. Among his Facebook followers were IS sympathizers who were planning to assassinate political and religious leaders in India (The Hindu, April 26).
Inroads
Radical Muslims from Sri Lanka were not drawn to al-Qaeda. Indeed, according to Ajai Sahni, Executive Director of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, there is no confirmed report of any Sri Lankan joining the al-Qaeda.” The al-Qaeda failed to make inroads in South Asian countries (except for Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said, and Sri Lanka was no exception.” [3]
However, IS was able to draw South Asians into its fold. A section of Sri Lankan Muslim youth was inspired by its ideology and achievements. Domestic developments in the island could have pushed Sri Lankan Muslim radicals to jihadism in recent years. Since 2011, Muslims have been attacked violently by Sinhalese-Buddhist extremists. While this violence may not have prompted the recent suicide bombings—if it had been the underlying trigger the bombers would have targeted Buddhist shrines, not churches—it could be a factor in Sri Lankan Muslims being more receptive to IS since 2014 than al-Qaeda in the previous decade. Indeed, the NTJ emerged in 2014, the same year that IS gained global prominence.
Joining the Jihad
Social media appears to have played a major role in Sri Lankan Muslims being drawn to volunteer as fighters. A Facebook group Seylan Muslims in Shaam” (Sri Lankan Muslims in the Levant) urged Sri Lankans to join the jihad. In 2014, when al-Baghdadi called on Muslims to immigrate to the caliphate,” several Sri Lankans heeded his call. Among them was Mohamed Muhsin Sharfaz Nilam (a.k.a. Abu Shurayh al-Silani), who left the island in January 2015, along with his family of six children, his pregnant wife, and parents, to join the fighting in Syria. His martyrdom” in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike in Raqqa in July that year was announced by another Sri Lankan jihadist and subsequently by Dabiq, IS’ online magazine (Terrorism Monitor, December 2, 2015).
In 2016, Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi said that 36 Muslims had gone to Syria to join the Islamic State (Daily News, January 5, 2016). They came from four families that are well-connected and respected, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, told parliament (Colombo Telegraph, November 19, 2016). Several scores more joined them thereafter. While many may have died in the fighting there, others would have returned to the island when IS started losing territory. They would have inspired, indoctrinated and trained others to become jihadists”. [4]
Investigations into the recent suicide bombings have determined that two of the suspects are Islamic State returnees from Syria and Iraq.” While their exact role in planning and executing the suicide bombings remains unclear, Sri Lankan intelligence has established that the two men were Islamic State-trained.” [5]
The intelligence wings of the Sri Lankan security forces have also found that Nizam, the first leader of JMI and a barrister in England, went to Syria in 2012 and was trained by IS. He subsequently returned home to Sri Lanka and took around 45 people to Syria for training. After training in Syria, these men are believed to have returned to the island.” JMI is now reported to have 139 members” who have been trained in making bombs. Six of the suicide bombers” who carried out the recent attacks were members of this organization.” [6]
Conclusion
The Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka were possible because IS collaborated with local Islamic radicals of the NTJ and JMI. The latter two were able to transform themselves from rhetoric-spewing groups engaging in vandalism to deadly suicide bombers thanks to the expertise, resources and training provided by IS. While it was IS that enabled local Sri Lankan radicals to make the deadly transition, the process of transmission has not been a one-way street. As the example of Hashim shows, his incendiary rhetoric and other expertise could have inspired IS supporters in India and elsewhere.
Notes
[1] Author’s interview with a senior Colombo-based Sri Lankan police official, April 28.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Author’s Interview with Ajai Sahni, counterterrorism expert and executive director of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management (April 29).
[4] Author’s interview with a senior Colombo-based Sri Lankan police official, April 28.
[5] Author’s Interview with Ajai Sahni, counterterrorism expert and executive director of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management (April 29).
General Secretary of the SLFP, former minister Dayasiri Jayasekara made an appeal to Saudi Arabia and Qatar yesterday to not let extremist groups in those countries to finance Muslim fundamentalists in Sri Lanka like National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ), who carried out the Easter Sunday carnage.
He told reporters that there was firm evidence to prove that religious extremists in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the IS (Islamic State) terrorists had funded the Muslim fundamentalists in Sri Lanka for several years. I believe that the armed forces, the Special Task Force (STF) and the police had hit the nerve center of Muslim extremists.
But we must not let complacency take the upper hand. We must be vigilant on possible acts of terrorism round the clock and round the year – until religious fundamentalism is fully annihilated,” Mr. Jayasekara stressed.
Mr. Jayasekara said the SLFP was fully supportive of the banning of the face veil worn by Muslim women that hinders the identification of the person who wears it.
He also added that a representation made to President Maithripala Sirisena by Jamaithulla Ulemas had approved the ban and also requested the President to bring Madrasasa and other religious schools under the supervision of the Education Ministry. There must be strict monitoring of Muslim preachers who arrive in Sri Lanka on tourist visas and give speeches on religious fundamentalism at Madrasas to radicalise Muslim youths.
This has to be stopped forthwith and a comprehensive monitoring system is vital to control the mushrooming of Madrasas, grouping of extremists as Muslim religious organisations and opening of mosques in a haphazard manner,’ he stressed. Mr. Jayasekara praised the armed forces, the STF and the police for their commendable service and added not a single bomb explosion or terrorist act took place after 22nd of April.
The law enforcement authorities have uncovered tonnes of explosives, arms and ammunition which were kept to carry out acts of terrorism. The country is returning to normalcy surely and fast. Therefore, parents must not get scared to send their children to schools and public servants and employees of the private sector to their workplaces,” he added. Mr. Jayasekara said the SLFP was fully against the introduction of counter-terrorism legislations after repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and added the need of the hour was to further strengthen the PTA with necessary amendments to fight religious terrorism influenced by extremist ideology. (
Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Sri Lanka was still under threat from global terrorists though the country was fast returning to normal after the Easter Sunday carnage, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today.
Making a special statement in Parliament, the Prime Minister said new laws such as Counter-Terrorism Bill was needed to fight global terrorism.
One should remember that Sri Lanka is yet to overcome the terrorist threats. This is because Sri Lanka had become a victim of global terrorism,” he said.
These terrorists will try different tactics to harm Sri Lanka through the locals who have associated with them have been apprehended. We should crush these terrorists. This is a challenge which we should overcome. It is necessary to bring in new laws such as Counter-Terrorism Bill to overcome it,” the Prime Minister said.
We have already received support the several international intelligence services. We need such help. Some allege that we are planning to get military support. This is not going to happen,” he added.
The Government has taken all possible steps to restore normalcy. Turnout in schools has been low on Monday. I have asked the Minister of Education to provide a report on it to me. We hope the situation in schools would be back to normal soon. Services were held in some churches during the last few days. Prayers were held in mosques as well. Security will be provided to all these institutions,” he also said.
There are some Sri Lankans who had migrated to Syria after IS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi declared an Islamic State and wanted the Muslims to migrate to Syria and Iraq.
They have travelled to Syria through Turkey. Mohamed Mushin Ishaq Ahamed, Mohammed U Mohammed Ameen, Mohammed Zuhair Mohammed Aroos, have migrated to Syria and had joined ISIS.
There are no reports of Sri Lankan Muslims who had trained in ISIS camps in Afghanistan. However, there have been reports on Sri Lankan Muslims going to Syria and undergoing military training in and returning to the island. Intelligence units, security forces and police are conducting investigations on it. Mohammed Ibrahim, Sadith Abdul Haq who had been arrested had revealed that he had gone to Syria and had undergone training,
Abdul Latif Mohammed Jameel who blew himself up in Dehiwala had also returned to Sri Lanka after travelling to Turkey with the objective of reaching Syria,” he revealed.
It has been also revealed that the first Sri Lankan to join ISIS Mohammed M. Safras had gone to Syria together with his aged parents. They have returned to Sri Lanka in 2016. Intelligence units are currently carrying out investigations on their activities.
He said basic compensation has been paid to the relatives of 102 persons who died and 42 persons who were injured in the Katuwapitiya, Batticaloa and Kochchikade church explosions. The churches are being renovated by the security forces.(
Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror
A large number of terrorists had already been arrested, out of which, 12 were hard-core members, President Maithirpala Sirisena told Parliament today.
He said that 13 safe houses belonging to those who were responsible for the Easter Sunday carnage had been taken over by the security forces, while 41 bank accounts belonging to the terror group have been freezed.
Speaking during the debate on Easter Sunday attacks in the House, the President said that all terrorists who were connected to the Easter Sunday attacks would be arrested within the next three days.
The President also revealed that the terror groups had paid Rs 2 million to each, who had provided minimum support to them. He said forces had recovered a total of Rs 18 million of these funds.
I have done the maximum to enable security forces to carry out operations after the attacks on April 21 2019. I have taken steps to reorganize the intelligence services and the Police,” he said.
Police did not have the power even to confiscate illicit liquor before I took over the Law and Order Ministry under my purview,” he said.
The President lauded his predecessor, Leader of Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa, for providing proposals on reorganizing the security establishments.
He said other political leaders should also provide proposals on the action that could be taken to crush terrorism. He said it is time to stop pointing fingers at each other.
Some attack me as if I am the leader of the terror groups, which wreaked havoc on Easter Sunday. Everyone should understand that I am the sixth Executive President of this country. It should be noted that bombs went off even during the tenures of five former Executive Presidents. We lived through bomb explosions during the 30-year old war,” he said.
President recalled that it took some time for him to get to know that the Easter Sunday attacks had been carried out by an international terror group.
I spoke to my Secretary from Singapore as soon as I was told about the attacks and briefed him what to do. I also talked to the Prime Minister over the phone that day. I summoned the Security Council meetings several times and invited Prime Minister and religious leader such as Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith to participate,” he further said.
Mr Sirisena mentioned that the world was facing terrorism today and it was not an issue faced by Sri Lanka alone.
No one can predict as to when global terrorists would strike. Not even President Trump, President Putin or Prime Minister Modi could predict when the global terrorists strike,” he stressed.(
The Police has arrested the Assistant Director of the Langama Pasala Hodama Pasala project of the Ministry of Education,Marikkar Dilshan Muhammad, for allegedly encouraging Islamic extremism and the Islamic State (IS).
The suspect was arrested in Norochcholai on 4 May evening, according to the list of persons, provided by the office of the Inspector General of Police, of those who assisted the terrorist group and the Sunday Easter (21 April) carnage.
Norochcholai Police said that the search operation was conducted according to the list and later it was revealed that the suspect currently works as an Assistant Director at the Ministry of Education.
The Police Media Unit said that after arresting the suspect, the Norochcholai Police had searched the suspect’s personal computer and his documents at his workplace, adding that the workplace was not sealed.
Ministry spokesman Kalpa Gunaratne said he is not aware whether the workplace was sealed or not.
The State Ministry of Defence has addressed a letter to the President of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) As-Sheikh Rizwe Mufthi denying a statement made by him at the all-religious leaders’ meeting held recently.
The Secretary of the ministry N.K.G.K. Nammawatta says, the President of ACJU had stated that he had handed over all information and documents regarding the IS-affiliated Islamist extremist in Sri Lanka to State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene in 2015.
The letter denies this claim, however, acknowledges the fact that As-Sheikh Rizwe Mufthi had met with the State Minister in 2015.
The State Ministry of Defence has urged As-Sheikh Rizwe Mufthi to rectify this misleading and misrepresentation of facts” and emphasized that legal actions would be taken against him if he fails to comply.
ACJU President As-Sheikh Rizwe Mufthi had made this statement at the all-religious leaders’ meeting held under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena on April 26th.
A 25-acre land plot in Riditenna area of Valaichchenai police division has been identified as a site occupied by the terrorist group responsible for the suicide bombings on Easter Sunday.
The Criminal Investigation Department, officers of Valaichchenai Police Station and the Police Special Task Force had carried out the search yesterday (06).
Said land plot had been used by the terrorist for various activities, according to the security forces.
On April 23rd, the owner of this 25-acre land was arrested by the Valaichchenai Police and later handed over to the CID for further investigations.
Interrogations into the suspect had led the security forces to search this piece of land, where 220 sticks of gelignite, a motorcycle and other equipment were also seized.
Complying with the request made by the security forces, 15 swords have been handed over to the Beruwala Police Station today (07).
On May 4th, the police requested the public to hand over the illegal swords, kris knives and sharp dagger to the nearest police station by Sunday (May 5th).
https://youtu.be/6xygvsGXA5U
However, on Monday (06), the police spokesperson announced that the time period to surrender illegal weapons currently in their possession to the police would be extended by another 48 hours.
Meanwhile, during search operations conducted by the officers of Beruwala Police Station, 15 swords were seized and the haul is to be produced before the Kalutara Magistrate’s Court.
In a separate search in Rathna Udagama and Kirikanduruwatte areas in Rathgama yesterday (06), three suspects were arrested along with 8 swords.
Preliminary investigations have uncovered that these swords had been used by the suspects for various criminal activities.
The suspects were to be produced before the Galle Magistrate’s Court today.
Rathgama Police is conducting further investigations into the incident.
