අමාදම් ගඟුල

[1] අන්තවාදී ශරියා නීති තහනම් කිරීමට බලකරමු
[2] අන්තවාදී බුර්කාව තහනම් කිරීමට බල කරමු
[3] අන්තවාදය උගන්වන ශරියා විශ්වවිද්‍යල සහ අරාබි පාසල් වසා දැමීමට බල කරමු
[4] අන්තවාදී පූජකයින් මෙරටට ගෙන්වීම නැවත්වීමට බල කරමු
[5] අන්තවාදයට සම්බන්දයයි සැක සිතන සියළු දෙනාගෙ දේපොල පරීක්ෂාවට බල කරමු
[6] අන්තවාදීන්ට උදව්කල සියළු මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලකයින් නෙරපා දැමීමට බල කරමු
[7] අන්තවාදී ක්‍රියාකාරකම් බහුල මුස්ලිම් ප්‍රදේශ තුල නිතර සෝදිසි මෙහෙයුම් සිදු කිරීමට බල කරමු
[8] ඉස්ලාම් ව්‍යාප්තවාදයට ආවඩන හලාල් වෙලද සහතිකය ඉවත් කිරීමට බල කරමු 
[9] මේවැනි යෝජනාවන් නිසා ඔබගේ මුස්ලිම් මිතුරා අසතුටට පත්වේනම් ඔහුටද විෂබීජය ශරීර ගතවී ඇතැයි සැක සිතමු

— ~ සබ්බදානං ධම්මදානං ජිනාති ~

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

The small communities of Tamils and Muslims living in Sri Lanka, amount to a total of about 24% of the country’s total population. These communities are descendants of groups of individuals, exclusively males, who initially arrived in this island at different times in the past for various purposes, and later settled down among the Sinhala people. The Tamils came from southern India and observe the cultural traditions of Tamilnadu which is their homeland where the Tamil culture and Tamil language originated. Initially Tamils came to the island as invaders and mercenaries and later, especially in the 19th century and thereafter, the British brought South Indian Tamils to Sri Lanka to work as labourers in British-owned commercial plantations. This was the time when our country was under the British invaders. Most of this Tamil labour community stayed behind and  were accorded citizenship in later years after the country attained political independence. Tamils in general, therefore are settler communities in the island with the rights and privileges enjoyed by the indigenous Sinhala people.  It is important to note that Tamils are indigenous to the Tamilnadu which is the birth-place of the Tamil culture and language. For all purposes, the national and cultural homeland of the Tamils is Tamilnadu. 

During a good part of the past four decades, Tamil terrorists of the LTTE, took away from the indigenous Sinhala majority, what they valued and cherished most as a nation – their freedom and peaceful life.  During this time, the large majority of Tamils living within and outside Sri Lanka were openly or discreetly supportive of terrorism and separatism propagated by the racist LTTE terrorists under Prabakaran, their ruthless leader. The overwhelming majority of Sri Lankan Tamils living overseas, were providing  assistance, both directly and indirectly, often using deceitful means to the Tamil terror movement in Sri Lanka thereby promoting gruesome, hideous and horrifying  terrorist activities against the nation, its Sinhala leaders, Bhikkhus, military and police personnel.. They provided assistance to bomb and destroy reputed historically significant Buddhist monuments and sites in our country, and other public property of value and took action to disrepute and undermine the legitimately elected government of our country.

The Sinhala nation is eternally grateful to the Ranaviru Sinhala sons and daughters for eliminating from our nation, this treacherous racist terrorist menace in the year 2009. Sinhala leaders at the time understood that for the emancipation of our nation, there can be no compromise with terrorists and their cohorts both local and foreign. The territorial integrity and sovereignty of our motherland is of fundamental importance to us, and the nation is ever grateful to those who led our military forces to eradicate Tamil terrorism and for restoring our nation for the present and future generations. Thousands of true sons of the soil sacrificed their precious lives while serving in the military forces. The nation will is grateful forever for the sacrifices they made to bring peace to our people

Our heroic military personnel who were making untold sacrifices to protect our people and the territorial integrity of our country were subject to extreme forms of indignity, insult and disgrace by these Tamils, especially during the period of conflict, using most deceitful and dishonest accusations. Our illustrious national culture and our Buddhist Sangha community  responsible for nurturing, promoting and uplifting our outstanding national culture for some two thousand three hundred years, were subject to debase and disrespect by these treacherous Tamil racists and extremists. Buying over and using the international media and other means, these overseas Tamil extremists were involved openly in a widespread campaign, using the basest forms of falsehoods and blatant lies of unimaginable proportions, to demean, discredit and destroy the good image of our country

The average Sinhala person has nothing against anyone who wishes to shed extremist feelings and joining them to build a nation that is peaceful and prosperous, a nation which shuns extremism and terrorism. The Sinhala people want all other communities to join them, just the way how minority communities are expected to do in other countries of the world, especially Canada, Australia, USA, and UK.  The Sinhala people want others who live among them to help build the country as one nation, a nation founded on the noble principles of non-violence, tolerance, compassion, where peaceful co-habitation has been the cornerstone from historic times.

HISTORY OF THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY OF SRI LANKA  

The Muslim community in Sri Lanka is a small non-indigenous minority settler community amounting at present, to about 9% of the total population of the country. They are the descendants of small groups of individuals, exclusively males, who came to the island at different times in the past, basically as traders. Trade relations with the Indian region was started by the newly Islamized Arabs in the early 7^th century CE. (According to Elliot and Dowson book , The History of India as told by its own Historians”, the first ship bearing Muslim travelers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630 AD.  According to H.G. Rawlinson, in his book: Ancient and Medieval History of India, the first Arab Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century AD.  However, it was much later, in the 9^th and 10^th centuries that the Arabs expanded eastwards towards India and China in search of trade and dominated  overseas trade. They initially established trading posts which eventually became permanent settlements. By the late 13^th century, such settlements were common along the southern coast of India and later on the western coast of Sri Lanka. In the 15^th century, increasing numbers of Muslims from the Muslims settlement on the coastal region of South India, came and settled in coastal regions of Sri Lanka. They were the descendants of earlier Arab traders who had settled in South Indian ports and married local women who spoke Tamil. By the early 16^th  when Portuguese vessels first arrived in Sri Lanka, Muslims were well settled in the coastal regions. They represented  a mixture of Sinhala, Arab and Tamil blood, and speaking Tamil with Arabic overtones.

In Sri Lanka, as everywhere they went, the Portuguese made a special point of ruthlessly persecuting Muslims, their business rivals. As a consequence, many Muslims fled the western littoral which had passed under Portuguese control, and settled in the north and east of the island.  The Dutch were no different during their period of occupation of the coastal areas. During the Portuguese period, Muslims had to seek refuge in interior areas among the Sinhala people. Sinhala kings such as Senerath and Rajasinghe-II, provided safety and shelter to Muslims in the Sinhala kingdom among the Sinhala people. Large numbers of Muslims were settled in the hill country and in Eastern Sri Lanka, saving them from harassment by the Europeans and providing opportunities for them to improve their livelihoods and practice their religion.

SPECIAL PRIVILEDGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 

The Muslim community continued to benefit from various forms of special opportunities privileges made available to them by the Sinhala-led governments, after the country gained political independence. Not only were they given opportunities to improve their commercial activities, but were accorded important Ministerial and professional positions in the government. Also, although forming a small segment of the nation’s  population (09% in 2013), Muslims have been accorded special privileges, some examples being   Muslim religious holidays being declared as public holidays in our country, and the representation of Muslims in the national flag of the country.

Muslims are well known to be running successful businesses in predominantly Sinhala majority areas with the Sinhala people as their customers. They are involved in wealth generating employment connected with tourism and travel. The per capita income of the Muslim community is far higher than that of the Sinhala majority community. A good part of buildings and land in most urban areas in the country, especially in predominantly Sinhala areas are owned today by Muslims. Most importantly, there are no restrictions in Sri Lanka for the construction of mosques in predominantly Sinhala areas, in spite of the fact that no Muslim country permits even the display of a Buddha image, let alone building Vihares. In Mosque activities such as prayers using load speakers in predominantly non-Muslim neighborhoods, the Muslims are causing a great amount of discomfort and irritation to non-Muslims. The Sinhala people have been overly tolerant about this unhealthy situation. 

No comparable minority in any major country in the world have been given such preposterous benefits, which are not rights but ridiculously high privileges enjoyed by the Muslims and Tamil settler minorities. Since the privileges of one person can only be had at the expense of the rights of another, this shows that, in fact, it is the indigenous Sinhala  who account for more than 75 of the population, who are discriminated against in Sri Lanka. Whenever Muslims held ministerial positions, they made sure that members of their  community were accorded preferential treatment in employment. That accounts for the large number of Muslim employees in Ministries and related public agencies such as Education, the Ports Authority,  Justice, and  Foreign Affairs which had prominent Muslim Ministers.  The important Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka was held by Muslims Ministers for many years under different governments. During this time, the Muslim children and youth were given preferential treatment in the area of education and admission to universities.  Also, it was during this time that several well- equipped exclusively Muslim schools were established in predominantly Muslim areas. After securing so much from the country, and from the majority Sinhala community who had all along provided them with hospitality and generosity, it is disappointing to see many Muslim leaders and Muslim people of today, especially those living in the Eastern province having the audacity and ingratitude to claim autonomy for the lands that they are occupying in predominantly Muslim areas. Do they realize that some of these lands were given to them by Sinhala kings and governments led by Sinhala leaders.

FURTHERING  COMMUNITY  SELF INTERESTS                                                   

There was much media attention in recent months, to undue exploitation and destruction of the country’s natural resources by Muslims under the direct initiative of a Muslim minister. This involves the illegal clearance of a part of the Wilpattu National Wildlife Sanctuary for a housing scheme exclusively for Muslims. Similar illegal and anti-national actions on the part of Muslims have been reported most recently in the Yan Oya valley, Thiriyaya and Pulmuddai national forest conservation and in Kalpitiya. These are instances of encroachment and illegal development of exclusively Muslim housing schemes, with funds from Muslim countries and Muslim INGO’s operating in this country. Muslim leaders and community leaders in general, appear to show a greater interest in furthering the interests of the Muslim community rather than the welfare of the public in general. It is a well known fact that Muslim establishments refrain from hiring non-Muslims for responsible positions in their establishments where the main clients are Sinhala people.  Also, the media has highlighted several allegations of various covert practices by Muslims to increase their population at the expense of the Sinhala population. The direct involvement of Muslims in the illicit drug trade has often been reported in the media.

ENCROACHMENT OF  HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT BUDDHIST SITES                            

There is clear evidence of disregard and disrespect for the Buddhist cultural heritage of the country. During the past two decades in particular, Muslims have illegally and forcibly encroached upon land that rightfully belongs to Buddhist temples on the eastern and southeast coast, THE Pottuvil region in particular. It was not long ago that Islamic fundamentalists and armed Muslim extremists were inciting violence against legitimate Buddhist activities in the East – Pottuvil region.  Muslims were forcibly encroaching upon land that rightfully belongs to Buddhist temples on the southeast coast. In addition Muslim encroachment of Kuragala archeological site near Balangoda  which is one of the oldest Buddhist historic sites of Sri Lanka has led to serious confrontations in recent years. Also in more recent years sites in the Northwest have been deceitfully encroached upon by the Muslim community, and archeological remains and ancient Buddhist monuments in these areas have been destroyed. It was not long ago that the exclusively Muslim, racist political party – the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and several Muslim civil society groups opposed the construction of Buddha’s statues on the southeast coastal areas which have long been places inhabited predominantly by Buddhists. 

THREAT TO THE NATIONAL UNITY AND CULTURE                                                     

From their attitude and actions, it is noticeable in recent years, that the Muslim         community in the country has posed a threat to national unity and territorial integrity of the country. They have resorted to actions that undermine the national cultural heritage and to the way of life of other communities, and in a covert manner to democratic principles and rule of law of the country, especially with the adoption by them of the Sharia law. These Sharia rules of Islam appear to govern politics, marriage and the day-to-day lives of its followers. Islam is associated with a political ideology where the church and state are not separate. Under the circumstances, one cannot expect Muslims to develop a sense of patriotism and national pride in a predominantly non-Muslim country such as Sri Lanka. In recent years, it is well evident that most Muslims do not appear to be interested in integrating with other communities, perhaps because assimilation is not permitted under the Islamic Shariah law. They rarely if at all participate in national events. They do not participate in the singing of the National Anthem in public events. They do not observe the traditional way of greeting by placing both hands together in the form of worship. Muslim children are taught not to worship their teachers which is a common practice among other non Muslim school children. 

There are schools that operate with government assistance, where not only the Principal and academic staff, but all students are Muslim. Some of these schools have been elevated as National Schools enjoying special privileges. Muslims have established many private International schools in several towns, where the student population and majority of staff are almost entirely Muslim. The most threatening of all is the recent establishment of the so-called Madrasas or Islamic schools, similar to those found in Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where the curriculum is focused on the teaching of the Koran and Shariah law. Saudi Arabian sources have funded the establishment of most of these Madrasas. Here, the younger generation of Muslims are being strongly exposed to the Saudi Arabian fundamentalist Wahhabi form of Islam imported from Saudi Arabia. Scholarships are awarded to Muslim youth of these schools to continue their Wahhabi Islamic studies in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries such as Pakistan, where Wahhabism predominates. This type of exclusive Islamic education and indoctrination is having a well-evident divisive effect in our nation and is beginning to disrupt national efforts to bring about overall unity and togetherness among communities that have made Sri Lanka their home. Their new male and female attire displays the desire of Muslims to look different and to be exclusive and separate from the nation’s mainstream. This polarization tendency and divisive spirit of the Islamic community is self-imposed. It is definitely not because they feel marginalized. The Koran forbids Muslims to closely associate non-Muslims.

The long term implications of these extremist trends are highly undesirable for the maintenance of peace and stability in the country. What is well evident from the several Muslim instigated, disruptive, illegal and often violent incidents that occurred in some places in the country in recent times, is how these extremist trends are impinging upon the traditional cultural base and integrity of this country, in particular on the wholesome Sinhala norms and principles upon which this nation is built, and also on the rule of law of this country. One should not overlook the fact and take for granted the long-standing opportunity for peaceful cohabitation of different communities, provided by the traditional cultural foundation established by the Sinhala people of this nation.

HALAL” PRACTICE AND ANIMAL WELFARE                                                           

There has been much discussion in recent times about the deceitful and exploitative nature of the halal’ business venture of Muslims. Halal is a most repulsive and horrendous practice that involves extreme form of abuse and cruelty towards animals?  It is a gruesome method where animals are tied down and their throats slashed, letting their blood ooze out slowly from the animal’s body and making animals die on their blood, a slow, lingering and agonizing death.  What is most horrendous is that this torturous practice takes place while the animals are desperately struggling for their lives. It is a well evident fact that these animals are conscious of what is happening to them. This is a most sickening and inhuman way of killing animals. It is a practice that should not be tolerated in any civilized society.

In a society such as ours where Buddhists predominate, and where non-violence       towards all living beings is a fundamental tenet, criminal practices of this nature cannot and should not be tolerated under any circumstances.  Animal welfare has been a tenet of the rulers of our nation from very early times, from the 3^rd century BCE.  It was at this time that the world’s first bird and animal sanctuary was established in Sri Lanka. From ancient times, the principle of animal welfare prevailed in our country until the arrival of European colonial powers, starting with the ruthless Portuguese invaders, at the beginning of the 16trh century. Besides hunting animals as a sport, the slaughtering of animals as a vocation started with the entry of Christianity and Islam to Sri Lanka.

CONFORMING TO NATIONAL CULTURAL NORMS AND VALUES

The non indigenous settler communities such as the Tamils and Muslims are expected to conform to the norms and values of the Hela Nation to which they belong today. They may have brought various ethnic, cultural and religious customs, traditions, traits and values from their original nation and homelands where their cultures evolved and consolidated. They are free to maintain these cultural norms as long as they do not conflict with the norms and practices of the Sinhala Nation of which they are now a part. Once the non-indigenous persons become a part of the Sinhala Nation it not only becomes their national obligation, but more importantly, it is to their advantage to become a part of the nation by learning and understanding the norms of the Sinhala nation where they now belong, and where they have been accepted as non-indigenous nationals by the indigenous Sinhala people. When a foreigner or a person not indigenous to a particular country migrates into the country, and decides to make it his home, it is incumbent on that person to learn about the history, norms and traits of the new country and its people. The new immigrant is expected to acknowledge, subscribe to and integrate into the new nation of which he now is a part. The same applies to all descendants of non indigenous immigrants, who may have been born and raised in the new nation

NATIONAL RIGHTS AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Indigenous Sinhala nationals or the Sinhala people are the founders of the Sinhala or Hela Nation, and are entitled to special national rights. Important in this regard is the promotion, protection and preservation of their culture, language, social system and values that characterize their Sinhala Nation.  Sinhala should be restored as the sole national and official language of the country.  Promotion and preservation of the Sinhala Buddhist culture as the national culture, should receive priority attention. It should be made a mandatory subject in the school curriculum.  The national anthem of the country is sung in the Sinhala language. The minority communities are not entitled to such special privileges, because the Sinhala nation was founded by the Sinhala people and is the legitimate home of the Sinhala people. Sinhale is not the home of other cultures and languages. These cultures and languages did not originate or evolve in this land  unlike the case with the Sinhala culture and Sinhala language. Therefore, the cultures and languages of minority communities cannot and are not entitled legitimately to be accorded national or official recognition at par with the Sinhala culture and language. However, these communities are free to observe and preserve their cultural activities and their languages within their communities. As far as ordinary human rights are concerned, members of minority settler communities are entitled to the same human rights as those enjoyed by members of the mainstream Sinhala community.   

As a nation with a historic cultural tradition that extends to over 2200 years, where the founding principles have been freedom, compassion, tolerance and accommodation of people of all faiths and ethnicities, it is necessary that the true patriots of Sinhale, the Sinhala nation, get to the forefront, mobilize themselves and  take legitimate actions to protect and uphold these wholesome cultural traditions, and thereby reinforce the Sinhala nation  – Sinhale.  All citizens of the country who subscribe to the Sinhale Nation and respect the cultural norms and values that characterize this nation, will find acceptance as members of the Sinhale nation, irrespective of their ethnic and religious affiliations and differences. The Sinhale Nation incorporates the tremendous cultural wealth of the Sinhala people recognized the world over for its richness and uniqueness. This should be preserved and promoted for posterity. Those who undermine the nation’s cultural heritage, sovereignty and territorial integrity are enemies of the nation and should be confronted and subdued forthwith, for the welfare of the nation.

STRENGTHEN AND REVITALIZE THE SINHALA NATION

For the patriotic and caring nationals of this island, especially those of the Sinhala community, irrespective of their religious affiliations, there is one moral law that stands above everything else, and that is to do everything possible to strengthen their Sinhala Nation and to curb the efforts of anti-national elements both local and foreign, engaged  in violating and undermining Sinhala Buddhist national interests. It was with such an attitude and approach that enabled our valiant Sinhala soldiers to wipe out anti-national, separatist Tamil terrorists who were hell-bent on destroying the integrity of this nation.  

The present generation of Sinhala nationals has a moral obligation to protect, preserve and promote the greatest of their inheritance, their unique nation, for the survival of their Buddhist cultural heritage and for the benefit of future generations. Concerned Sinhala nationals will under no circumstances allow the sovereignty, the distinct territorial integrity and the all-pervasive Sinhala Buddhist cultural character of the island be subject to any form of disarray or disintegration. They will not permit any force, internal or external, ethnic or religious, to subjugate or undermine the integrity of the Sinhala Buddhist culture of this island nation. .

Sinhala history is replete with valor and courage in battles against overly superior forces. The struggle against extremism and the looming division of this Sinhala island nation of ours demands our full national strength. Let all Sinhala nationalists rise to the occasion, forgetting for a moment their ‘other’ differences, and swear allegiance to the unity of this country by giving unswerving support to those commendable organizations that have emerged in recent times to save the nation from undesirable elements. The renewed loyalty that is fast emerging among the Sinhala nationals, particularly among the contemporary youth, is most encouraging.

VIOLATION OF SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIONAL INTEGRITY 

Sinhala nationals should not tolerate any individual or community who, whilst living in the Sinhala Nation and considering it their home, deliberately misusing such a privilege by scheming and adopting extreme means or contributing to such actions, in violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of this only nation of ours. This includes both direct and indirect efforts on the part of these extremist elements living among us, with ridiculously unfounded claims to carve out ethnic and religious enclaves within our country, merely because some of them had lived in specific places for extended periods of time. These individuals and communities with self-serving attitudes and objectives should be considered as traitors or enemies of our nation and should be dealt with accordingly. There  is no place in our nation for such traitors, double crossers, renegades, turncoats, collaborators of enemies, criminals and terrorists, conspirators, connivers, schemers and emissaries, spies, secret agents, undercover agents and double agents of the enemies of this Sinhala Buddhist Nation. 

BUDDHIST MONKS, SINHALA SCHOLORS AND PATRIOTS

The majority of present day monks are better educated and possess a broader outlook. Our monks are fully capable of providing the necessary leadership, patronage and helping in the organization of Buddhist cultural pursuits. Our Buddhist scholars have stayed too long in the background. It is time that they came forward and jointly with our monks took the initiative to counter the negative forces harming Buddhism and Sinhala culture. They owe it to their children and youth. Buddhist cultural pursuits should be encouraged and receive increased patronage. The mass media should be used to the utmost in the accomplishment of these pursuits.  In spite of all the challenges of recent decades, our monks continued to be accorded attention and respect by our people. On their part our monks have continued to be close to people and participate at all notable events in people’s lives. This should continue with more vigor.

In recent times, movements and organizations have sprung up under the initiative of some concerned Bhikkhus and members of the Sinhala community across the country, with an increasingly large following of the nation’s youth, to highlight and draw attention to the vital and pressing need for necessary action to restore, protect and uphold the legitimate national rights and privileges of the Sinhala people and the traditionally and constitutionally accorded foremost place to Buddhism, which in recent times appear to be subject to threats and challenges from both local and foreign sources. There is evidence of attempts both direct and indirect, overt and covert, to undermine these legitimate rights and privileges by extremist elements, especially of the minority Muslim and Tamil communities evidently with the involvement of extremist, racist, uncaring and unpatriotic politicians with their own vested interests and ulterior motives. 

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

Courtesy  Brisbane Times

One of the Sri Lankan bombers came back from Australia after his postgraduate studies a changed man, his sister says.

Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed studied at Swinburne University in Melbourne between 2009 and 2013, The Australian reported.

Mohamed, suspected to be one of the ringleaders of the atrocity in Sri Lanka, was investigated by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team in 2014 because of his links to several suspects including Australian-born IS militant Neil Prakash, the paper says.

Samsul Hidaya, one of Mohamed’s sisters, told the Daily Mail her brother became “a different man” in Australia and became withdrawn and intense.

“My brother became deeply, deeply religious while he was in Australia,” Ms Hidaya said.

“He was normal when he went to study in Britain, and normal when he came back. But after he did his postgraduate in Australia, he came back to Sri Lanka a different man.

“He had a long beard and had lost his sense of humour. He became serious and withdrawn and would not even smile at anyone he didn’t know, let alone laugh.”

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Times of India

KOZHIKODE: Security agencies are probing whether any of the  .. 

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/69050078.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

One of the Sri Lankan bombers who studied at an Australian university was investigated by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team in 2014, The Australianreports. 

Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed studied at Swinburne University in Melbourne between 2009 and 2013, The Australian reports and was investigated because of his links to several suspects, including Neil Prakash.

Mohomed, suspected to be one of the ringleaders of the atrocity in Sri Lanka, came back from Australia after his post-graduate studies a changed man, his sister says.

 Sri Lankan security forces stand at the site where a vehicle parked near St. Anthony’s shrine exploded in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo: AP

Samsul Hidaya, one of Mohamed’s sisters, told the Daily Mail her brother became “a different man” in Australia and became withdrawn and intense.

“My brother became deeply, deeply religious while he was in Australia,” Ms Hidaya told the Daily Mail.

“He was normal when he went to study in Britain, and normal when he came back. But after he did his postgraduate in Australia, he came back to Sri Lanka a different man.”

By EMILY SCHMALL Courtesy  The times of Israel

Suspects could have access to explosives and aim to carry out more suicide bombings, Ranil Wickremesinghe says

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at his office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s prime minister said Thursday that suspects linked to the coordinated Easter Sunday bomb attacks remain at large and could have access to explosives.

Some of the suspects may go out for a suicide attack,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Wickremesinghe spoke frankly about the greatest challenge the South Asian island nation has faced since its civil war ended a decade ago.

This is another experience for us. Not that we are not strangers to terrorism, but this is global terrorism, so we have to ensure that we root this out,” he said.

Approximately 250 people were killed in the string of suicide bombings at churches and luxury hotels in and around the capital, Colombo, Sri Lanka’s health ministry said late Thursday. The death toll was revised down from previous police estimates of 359 people.

The mother and sister of Dhami Brandy, 13, who was killed during Easter Sunday’s bomb blast at St. Sebastian Church, mourn during her funeral service in Negombo, Sri Lanka, April 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

The attacks were claimed two days later by the Islamic State group, who posted a video of the man Sri Lankan officials said led the attack with seven others pledging their allegiance to the withered caliphate.

Police, meanwhile, issued a public appeal for information about three women and two men suspected of involvement in the attacks.

Wickremesinghe also said that the father of two of the suspected suicide bombers, Colombo spice dealer Mohammad Yusuf Ibrahim, had been arrested. He described him as a leading businessman active in politics known as Ibrahim Hajiar,” a Sri Lankan term for Muslims who have gone on religious pilgrimages to Mecca.

The prime minister expressed doubt about Ibrahim’s complicity in the attack.

People like that would not have wanted their sons to blow themselves up,” he said.

Sri Lankan authorities have blamed a local extremist group, National Towheed Jamaat, whose leader, alternately named Mohammed Zahran or Zahran Hashmi, became known to Muslim leaders three years ago for his incendiary online speeches.

On Wednesday, junior defense minister Ruwan Wijewardene said the attackers had broken away from National Towheed Jamaat and another group, which he identified only as JMI.”

Wijewardene said many of the suicide bombers were highly educated and came from well-to-do families.

The prime minister said it appeared that Sri Lanka’s wealthiest and best-traveled Muslims were most susceptible to the doctrine professed by the Islamic State group.

A photo published on the Islamic State terror group’s propaganda outlet, the Amaq agency, on April 23, 2019, showing what the group says is eight bombers who carried out the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. (Amaq)

They were too educated and therefore, they were misled,” Wickremesinghe said.

The bombers were wealthy enough to have financed the entire operation themselves, though they would have needed outside help for training and bomb-building expertise, Wickremsinghe said.

He said that authorities still hadn’t confirmed whether Zahran, who was supposed to have led one of suicide missions, was among the corpses recovered from the scenes or still at large.

Sri Lanka has been sharply criticized for an apparent intelligence lapse. Government leaders have acknowledged that some intelligence units were aware of possible attacks weeks before the bombings, but the president and prime minister both have said the intelligence was not shared with them.

Wickremesinghe blamed the incident, in part, on a breakdown of communication.”

Sri Lankan security personnel walk next to dead bodies on the floor amid blast debris at St. Anthony’s Shrine, following an explosion in the church in Kochchikade in Colombo, on April 21, 2019. (ISHARA S. KODIKARA/ AFP)

President Maithripala Sirisena, who was out of the country during the Sunday attacks, had ousted Wickremesinghe in October and dissolved the Cabinet. The Supreme Court later reversed his actions, but relations between the two top leaders have remained frigid.

In the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s attacks, Sri Lanka blocked most social media, with the prime minister expressing concern that it could be used to incite violence in the country of 21 million.

Wickremesinghe said Thursday that security forces were trying to help Muslim Ahmadis from Pakistan seeking refugee status in Sri Lanka, who said they had been attacked and beaten in the days following the bombings.

Some people had become suspicious of foreigners, not of Muslims per se,” Wickremesinghe said.

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The wife of the UK-educated Sri Lanka suicide bomber has told how he betrayed his family to join Islamic State.

Devastated Shifana Mohamed, 30, last saw Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed – who attended Kingston University – when he left home for Friday prayers.

The privately educated aircraft ­engineer was so keen to hide his deadly mission he did not even say goodbye.

He left behind his six-month-old baby boy, two sons aged six and four, and their ­three-year-old daughter.

Jameel set off like any other day” to meet the seven other bombers, who killed 253 people, a revised toll after officials said morgues had been overwhelmed.

I had no idea until the police turned up at my door. I was in complete shock,” she told her dad.

He was a loving father, and just went off as usual on Friday.

 But we never saw him again. He has left me and his children behind. It is hard to take in what he has done.”

READ MORE

• Sri Lanka bombings: Brits warned NOT to travel to country as fears grow of new attacks

The family spoke of their devastation as Britons were warned against all but essential travel” to Sri Lanka.

The Foreign Office’s advice could lead to thousands of holidaymakers leaving.

Jameel’s family showed photos of him playing with friends and animals when he was around 12 years old.

They have watched in horror as police, then special force officers arrived at their home in affluent Wellampitiya, Colombo.

They searched the property before returning to take heartbroken Shafina into custody with their baby son.

He was quiet, reserved, just a normal guy who was a very caring father to the kids,” said her dad who did not wish to be named.

The last time we saw him, he went off without a goodbye. He did not leave a suicide note.”

Jameel, 36, studied at Kingston ­University in London, named by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015 as one of four universities which he alleged hosted the most events with extremist speakers. Kingston denied the claim.

His sister believes he was ­radicalised abroad, notably his three-year postgraduate course in Melbourne, Australia.

Jameel was ­investigated by Australian security over links to IS recruiter Neil Prakash.

The probe was triggered by ­intelligence that linked him to counter-terrorism targets, including Prakash.

He started to grow his beard to show his devotion to his faith, praying five times a day.

But there was no hint of his radical views, or devotion to extremist Zahran Hashim, the suspected mastermind behind the Easter Sunday massacres.

Jameel was meant to blow up the Taj Hotel in Colombo. When his device failed, he moved to the Tropical Inn Hotel. It is believed he set off his bomb by mistake, killing one other.

When the Mirror visited his home, Shifana’s dad, 57, said: He betrayed his faith, his family.

“My daughter fell in love with him 10 years ago when he rented a room at my home. I wish she’d never laid eyes on him.

If we had known anything, we would have told police. He was quiet, secretive, with no friends.

“He would say ‘mind your own business’ when even we asked him about work.

READ MORE

• Sri Lanka bombings: Childhood face of British-educated boy who became terrorist

He was wealthy, provided for his children. He’d go away from Friday to Monday, we had no idea where.

I had no clue that he was becoming more obsessed with religion. He was a caring dad, but his kids are without a father.”

Born in 1982 with six siblings, Jameel was from a privileged background like many of the bombers.

His father had a tea business before he died 10 years ago.

He fell in love with Shifana, who came from a meat-trading family, when he returned from Britain around 2007.

They had a child in Australia, where Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a bomber lived with his wife and child there on a student visa, leaving in 2013.

He and his wife spoke English with their children, who do not speak native Sinhalese.

His sister Samsul Hidaya said he became deeply, deeply ­religious” while he was in Australia.

He came back a different man,” she said. He had a long beard, had lost his sense of humour.

“He was serious, withdrawn, he would not smile at anyone he didn’t know, let alone laugh.

He was a music lover. Before he died he wouldn’t let his children listen to music and never said a friendly word to anyone.”

BY JANITA KAN Courtesy  The Epoch Times

The pregnant wife of a Sri Lankan suicide bomber detonated a suicide vest when police raided the family’s Colombo home, killing herself, her children, and police officers.

A series of coordinated attacks on hotels and churches devastated Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday leaving at least 250 people dead and hundreds more injured. The Health Ministry revised the death toll from 359 casualties on April 25, blaming it on a calculation error, reported BBC.

A total of nine bombers have been identified by the authorities for carrying out the attacks.

According to reports, two brothers Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim, 31, and Imsath (or Inshaf) Ahmed Ibrahim, 33, have been identified as the suspected bombers during the attacks. Inshaf Ibrahim, a copper factory owner, is accused of being the mastermind behind the bomb plot.

The nation’s Deputy Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said that when police went to raid the brothers’ home in Dematagoda shortly after the bombings, the pregnant wife of one of the brothers, who was identified as Fatima Ibrahim, detonated a suicide vest she was wearing killing herself, her unborn child, two other young children, and three police officers, reported ABC.

Wijewardene told local media in a press conference on April 24 that one of the brothers is understood to have studied in the UK and then continued on with postgraduate studies in Australia.

We believe one of the suicide bombers studied in the UK and later on did his postgraduate in Australia before coming back to settle in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Moreover, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on April 25, I can confirm that the suicide bomber had been in Australia. They departed in early 2013. That individual had been here on a student and a graduate skilled visa.”

The brothers are thought to be the sons of wealthy, politically connected spice merchant Mohammad Yusuf Ibrahim.

What we can say is some of the suspected bombers, most of them are well-educated and come from maybe middle- or upper-middle-class so are financially independent and their families are quite stable. So that is a worrying fact,” Wijewardene said.

Both were members of the radical Islamic group National Thowfeek Jamaath (NTJ) that has been named by Sri Lankan officials as being behind the bombings.

Ilham Ibrahim had previously express extremist views and was involved in meetings with the local radical Islamic group suspected of being involved in the bombings, reported Newscorp. Meanwhile, his brother Inshaf is known to have more moderate views, was reported brainwashed” by his brother over many years to become more overtly religious and intolerant, reported the National Post.

Inshaf was married to the daughter of a wealthy jewelry manufacturer and had given donations to local struggling families, reports said.

The brother’s father, Mohamed Ibrahim, a wealthy spice trader is now being interrogated about the coordinated attacks.

He had previously been recognized by Sri Lanka’s former president for outstanding service provided to the nation,” according to The New York Times. He was also supported by one political party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which planned to nominate him to Parliament. However, it did not win enough votes.

Police are continuing to carry out raids as they investigate those responsible for the attacks. So far at least 70 people have been arrested and seven people are wanted in connection with the bombings, reported BBC.

The Epoch Times reporter Melanie Sun and NTD News reporter Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

Courtesy  NZ Herald , Section National,

One of the Sri Lankan suicide bombers has family links to New Zealand, with confirmation both his sister and mother lived in Auckland.

Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed was one of the terrorist bombers involved in the Easter Sunday attacks. His deadly plan was to target the luxury Taj Samudra hotel in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

Mohamed’s sister, Samsul Hidaya, has revealed how he became radicalised abroad and ended up “really angry and totally crazy”.

The family split apart, with some moving to Australia and others to New Zealand.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Samsul Hidaya said Mohamed had been educated to the highest level but became increasingly withdrawn and intense as he descended into extremism.

“My brother became deeply, deeply religious while he was in Australia,” she said.

“He was normal when he went to study in Britain, and normal when he came back.

“But after he did his postgraduate in Australia, he came back to Sri Lanka a different man.

“He had a long beard and had lost his sense of humour. He became serious and withdrawn and would not even smile at anyone he didn’t know, let alone laugh.”

Sri Lanka has lowered the death toll from the Easter suicide bombings by nearly one third, to 253, as authorities hunted urgently for a least five more suspects – and brace for the possibility of more attacks in the coming days.

Mohamed tried to blow up the luxury Taj Samudra hotel in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Easter Sunday.

But he is believed to have botched his attempt to detonate his bomb at the five-star hotel and is thought to have blown himself up by accident at a much smaller guest house.

UK counter-terrorism investigators believe he attended Kingston University in south-west London from 2006-07.

British investigators are searching for any associates or signs of extremist activity during his time in the UK.

Recalling the shock of his involvement in the atrocity in which the initial toll was thought to be 359, Mrs Hidaya opened the family photo album to show childhood pictures of the future bomber show the practical joker as a teenager, laughing with friends as he posed with a crocodile and other animals.

“He was a music lover and a funny boy,” his sister said.

“It makes me sad to think what happened to him. Before he died he would not let his children listen to music and he never said a friendly word to anyone.”

Even as a child he was always devout, she added, but had ‘never taken it too far’. But on his return from Australia, he ‘created tension’ by berating his family for their religious lapses, she said.

“I had many arguments with him,” his sister recalled.

“At first he started quoting scripture and I would say OK, you’re right.

“But then the conversation got deeper and deeper into religion and I couldn’t follow what he was saying any longer.

“He told male relatives off for trimming their beards and became angry and totally crazy. So I just stopped speaking to him because it got to the point where it was getting out of hand.”

Suicide bomber Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed’s sister and mother lived in Auckland.

Although Mohamed lived round the corner, the siblings avoided each other. She he came to visit their mother, who lived with Hidaya, he would ignore her.

“We even started using different roads to go to and from our houses,” she said.

But despite his evident fanaticism, the news of the Easter atrocities came as a shock. “When the police came to tell us it was him, I almost collapsed,” Hidaya said.

“I just didn’t think he would take it this far. I am still in disbelief. Something happened to him in Australia that changed his personality. He became silent and aloof.”

Mohamed’s wife, who he married in a lavish ceremony before moving to Australia, was a “silent and anonymous” character, Hidaya said.

She has been taken into police custody and their four children, aged six, four, two and six months, are being cared for by their grandmother in the home where the atrocity was planned.

Mohamed’s identity came to light after Sri Lanka’s defence minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, told a media briefing earlier on Wednesday that one of the bombers had studied in the UK and done postgraduate studies in Australia before returning to settle in Sri Lanka.

Hidaya said her brother, born in 1982 to a family with six siblings, was from a wealthy tea trading family based near the central city of Kandy.

He was educated at the nearby Gampola International School before studying for his A Levels at the Royal Institute, a well-known international school in Colombo.

Bomber’s family lived in Auckland

Ten years ago, after his father, Abdul Latif, died, his mother, Samsun Nissa, moved the family to Colombo, renting the upper floor of a mansion in a majority Muslim eastern suburb.

After returning from studying in Britain, he moved into the property and fell in love with their landlord’s daughter, Shifana, who came from an affluent meat-trading family.

They married before moving to Australia so he could pursue his postgraduate studies.

Mohamed’s younger sister married a Sri Lankan New Zealander and emigrated to Auckland with their mother.

Her brother, who had his first child in Australia, moved back to Sri Lanka to live in the mansion his family previously rented.

His grandfather had left him an extensive property portfolio when he died, including the family home in Kandy. As a result, the trained aeronautical engineer did not need to work.

“Before he died he was selling the family home,” Hidaya said.

“He obviously needed a sum of money.

“But he never wanted for anything in his life. From time to time he sold or bought a property. He never had to worry about money like ordinary people do.”

– Additional reporting: Daily Mail

By Deborah Haynes, foreign affairs editor Courtesy Sky News

Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed has a rucksack, thought to contain explosives, and a suitcase at a Colombo hotel before the attacks.

Image:Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed pictured at the Taj hotel in Colombo

A photograph has been obtained by Sky News which, according to a security source, is of the suspected Sri Lanka suicide bomber who studied in Britain.

Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, 36, is bearded with a rucksack, thought to contain explosives, and a suitcase at the Taj hotel in Colombo on Easter Sunday.

He is wearing a baseball cap just like two other suspected bombers pictured on CCTV footage before they struck the Shangri-La hotel.

Seven other bombers exploded themselves in a coordinated strike against churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.

Only he didn’t, and instead blew himself up hours later at a low-grade guesthouse on the outskirts of the city.

Security officials say something went wrong with the detonation charge so he left the five-star hotel frustrated.

One source said he changed his clothes, swapping a striped shirt for a white, short sleeved one.

He then caught a rickshaw to travel to the Dehiwala area where he checked into the Tropical Inn at around 9.30am, just after the mass bombings.

Sumith Vijelal, the manager of the guesthouse, said the driver of the rickshaw was a friend of his and claimed he brought Mohamed to him as a favour to find him a guest.

He revealed this driver has since been taken in for questioning by the police but claimed he thought he would be released soon.

Mohamed asked for a room with a lock, before dumping his bags and leaving, according to Mr Vijelal.

Sources said he visited a local mosque. Another photograph is said by a security source to be of him at the mosque, wearing a white shirt.

He then returned to the hotel at around 1.30pm, went into his room and about eight minutes later, blew himself up, the manager said.

The blast killed a man and woman staying in a room next door.

It reduced the one-storey building to rubble.

Mohamed – who has also been pictured in an ID photo – was already under police monitoring.

He has two passports and travelled widely, possibly even spending time in Syria.

Sky News has obtained exclusive details of some of his foreign travel when he may have been radicalised.

The suspect made his first known trip to the UK on 1 January 2006 to study aeronautical engineering at Kingston University.

He then returned to Sri Lanka via the Maldives in September the following year.

He went back to Britain in 2008. Security officials are looking into his movements and any extremist links.

Over the next four years he jumped between Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. Islamic State is known to have a presence in Malaysia.

It has been revealed that he did a postgraduate degree in Australia at some point. He is also reported to be married and with children.

When and how he became radicalised is under investigation as well as why he chose to bring terror to an obscure street on the outskirts of Colombo.

Courtesy Ceylon Today

Britain has sent a team of Counter-Terrorism Police to Sri Lanka after the deadly bombing attacks that killed at least 359 people, including eight Britons, on Easter Sunday.

United Kingdom (UK) Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that family liaison officers had been sent to Sri Lanka to support and assist the families of British victims and help with repatriation of their bodies.

The attack was complex, tightly coordinated and designed to cause maximum chaos, damage and heartbreak,” Hunt told Parliamentarians in the House of Commons yesterday (23).

The UK will never stand by in the face of such evil, so today we stand in solidarity with the Government and people of Sri Lanka, who have been making enormous strides towards stability and peace after the conclusion of the civil war almost 10 years ago.”

Hunt spoke with the Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tilak Marapana on 22 April evening to offer his condolences and the UK’s assistance with the investigation.

After eight explosions ripped through hotels and churches across the country, an improvised pipe bomb found on Easter Sunday evening was destroyed by the security services at the Katunayake Airport.

Hunt said that the device was probably meant to harm fleeing civilians.

British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to Sri Lankan Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe earlier yesterday (23). May stressed the UK’s solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka.

The Leaders discussed the strong connection between the UK and Sri Lanka, and the need to stand together in the fight against terrorism,” a Downing Street spokesman said.

Wickremesinghe expressed his gratitude for the UK’s support.”

Hunt stated that the attacks were a ‘primitive and vile’ attempt to sow division between the people of different faiths.

We must respond by bringing people together – the exact opposite of what was intended by the perpetrators,” he said.

To attack Christian worshipers at Easter, which is a celebration of peace and the holiest day in the Christian calendar, betrays in the attackers an absence of the most basic values of humanity,” he added.

In response to such acts, we must redouble our efforts to protect the freedom of religious minorities to practice their faiths, wherever they are,” he said.

He said that the British Government will continue to give their wholehearted support to the people of Sri Lanka.

By Sumanasiri Liyanage Courtesy Ceylon Today

Even at the time of writing this piece, blood stains at the Katuwapitiya church, Negombo that is just a kilometre away from my house might not have dried off. In the next a few days, we may be able to witness the funeral processions of our neighbours who were killed in the brutal and cowardly attack on Easter Sunday. Hope and pray the people who were injured badly but fortunately survived would recover soon. For nearly two and a half decades prior to 19 May 2009, Sri Lankans lived in fear and uncertainty without knowing what would happen to them and their loved ones. This was common to all Sri Lankans of course in a different degree irrespective of where they lived – North or South. Having heard this sad news with shock and dismay the first question that for sure would come to anyone’s mind is Will Sri Lanka go back once again, to a prolonged period of terror?” Peace that usually prevails on Easter Sunday was disrupted by a brutal attack not only in Negombo but in eight places. Even the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with a larger military mechanism in their heydays were not able to execute simultaneous attacks in a large number of places. Hence, surmising returning back to the prolonged days of terror is absolutely understandable. The targets of the perpetrators were three prominent churches in the heart of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa and three five-star hotels in Colombo. The eight attacks left 350 dead and about 500 injured. A massive number! A powerful organisation with an extended network is absolutely essential to execute an attack of such a massive scale. And the victims of the attacks were ordinary women and men, not the State or a rival militant organisation. It has also been reported that in some places the attacks were executed by suicide bombers. To convince someone to go, kill and die, an organisation should be able to provide a strong dose of extremism or drug or both.  

Two Questions

Who executed these cowardly, cruel and inhumane attacks? Whey did they do it? What was the motivation that led them to engage in such a barbaric action? Of course, a layman like me may not be able to answer these complex and difficult questions. Nevertheless, we all need quick answers. In case, when authorities fail to provide reasonable answers to these questions it is natural for people to come out with their own answers based not on facts that are distant from them but on surmises that may oftentimes be incorrect. The State Minister of Defence has revealed that seven persons who are allegedly involved in this attack were arrested. 

Although there has been no conclusive and firm evidence, all fingers appear to have been directed towards a little-known militant organisation that pretends itself as the sole protectors of Islam. Muslim religious leaders informed the Government sometime ago that this organisation, in the name of Islam, was planning a terror attack.

On the basis of this inconclusive identification of the culprit, the second question that is to be posed refers to the motivation behind the attack. Why do they target innocent Catholics knowing that they would flock together to their parish church to show their devotion on Easter Sunday? In the last forty years, Muslims were made victims of inhumane attacks in Jaffna, Mawanella, Mutur, Beruwala, Digana and many other places. 

However, there was no evidence that the Catholic population was behind these attacks or participated in them. Catholics played a neutral role in these Tamil-Muslim and Sihala-Muslim tussles. Did Sri Lanka become one of the links of the New Zealand, Notre Dame Chain, in the clash of civilisations”? Still I have no clue why Sri Lanka has become such an immediate link in the chain.

Towards a New Security Paradigm

As far as national security is concerned, it is imperative to review even briefly the security implications of these attacks because people are worried about whether this marks a beginning of a new period of terror. It was reported that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that the Government was aware of information regarding a possible attack and that adequate precautions were not taken to prevent the attack.” These reprehensible and disgraceful revelations by the country’s Prime Minister show that the Government is not at all concerned with the security of the people. In another country, the Prime Minister would have resigned from his post for the total disregard for national security. Similarly, Minister Harin Fernando told the press that he was warned by his father not to attend the Easter Sunday sermon. Had he shared this information with his fellow Christians, many of the fatalities would have been avoided. He also tweeted some documents that proved the Government’s prior knowledge of the attacks. Could this be related to the ongoing tussle between the President and the Prime Minister? Are the two fighting with each other for individual political gain at the cost of innocent lives? Even if it was the case, the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers cannot easily wash their hands off the matter and they like the President are equally responsible for what has happened. Government’s total negligence of and disregard for peoples’ security poses an issue of paramount importance.

What is meant by national security? What weightage was given in it to the security of the ordinary people, like who attended the Easter Sunday sermon? Two tentative conclusions can be made. In the last four odd years national security appears to have been neglected partly because of the Government’s pro-Western foreign policy articulated primarily by Minister Mangala Samaraweera.  It is unbelievable that a country that had developed a very strong intelligence network has failed to know about the presence and the operation of an extremist militant organisation that was capable of conducting simultaneous attacks in the country killing more than 200 people. As one of my friends in the University of Colombo told me, the so-called Yahapalana Government had rejected and abhorred everything that come with adjective, ‘national’ except in the case of the National Government. Secondly, in the name of national security, security is being provided to President, ex-Presidents, Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and other politicians. Money was over-subscribed to back up vehicles, bullet proof vehicles and helicopters. Hence, even when the Prime Minister was aware of the attacks that were targeted at ordinary folks, no preventive actions were taken owing to the fact that peoples’ security is not a major concern.

Therefore, we need a system in which not the security of politicians but the security of the common people be given a priority. This means a paradigm shift in national security. Only such change can resolve the issue of peoples’ security. Can we expect such paradigm shift from the Government that represents and stands for elites and elites only?
The writer is a retired teacher of Political Economy.

E-mail: sumane_l@yahoo.com

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Three suspects were arrested along with a van, 21 locally made low powerful hand grenades and six swords during a raid carried out by the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) and the Special Task Force (STF) personnel in Modara today.

The CCD officials are conducting further investigations.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Sri Lankan Government said it was suspending plans to grant citizens of 39 countries visa-free entry during the country’s tourism low season after Easter Sunday terror attacks, AFP reported today.

Tourism Minister John Amaratunga in a statement said although arrangements were in place to issue visas on arrival for citizens of 39 countries, the government has now decided to hold it in consideration of the current security situation. 

“Investigations have revealed foreign links to the Easter attacks and we don’t want this programme to be abused,” he said.

Sri Lanka had announced last month a plan to allow visa-free entry to tourists from 39 countries, including EU members, Australia and the United States, during the low season, from May 1.

The scheme did not include China and India, from where many of Sri Lanka’s visitors come.

The devastating Easter Sunday suicide bombings against churches and hotels killed 359 people, including dozens of foreigners.

The blasts have rocked the country’s burgeoning tourism industry, which is one of the most important foreign exchange earners for the island.

Sri Lanka received 740,600 foreign tourists in the first three months of the year, up 4.6 percent from the same period a year earlier.

It welcomed a record 2.33 million tourists in 2018, and was named the world’s top travel destination for 2019 by the Lonely Planet guide book.

Courtesy Adaderana

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed one of the suicide bombers involved in the Sri Lankan bombings that killed more than 350 people on Easter Sunday spent time in Australia.

The prime minister says the man was not granted another visa after leaving Australia more than six years ago.

I can confirm that the suicide bomber had been in Australia. They departed in early 2013. That individual had been here on a student and a graduate skilled visa,” Morrison told reporters in Townsville earlier today. That individual had been here some years ago and they had a spouse and child visa at that time as well but they had not returned to the country.”

Morrison’s comments come as details surrounding the aftermath of the attacks come to light, with the pregnant wife of one of the bombers killing herself, her three children and three police officers during a raid on their Colombo home on Sunday.

Separately, a British security official has confirmed one of the bombers was believed to have studied in the U.K. between 2006 and 2007. The security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation, said British intelligence was not watching the relevant individual during his stay in the country.

Courtesy Adaderana

Hemasiri Fernando has resigned from his post as the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, stated Ada Derana reporter.

President Maithripala Sirisena requested the Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to submit their resignations, yesterday (24).

This was following public outrage and backlash against the two officials over the failure to prevent the Easter Day bombing despite receiving prior warnings of a possible attack.

Meanwhile, Parliamentarian Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has sent a letter to President calling for immediate arrests of the Defense Secretary and the IGP.

On Easter Sunday (April 21) a series of bombs targeting several churches and hotels in the country had left nearly 360 persons dead and over 500 injured.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Muslim communities are urged to refrain from gathering for Congregational Prayers (Jummah prayers) tomorrow (26), says the Minister of Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs.

Issuing a statement today, he appealed to the Muslim devotees to pray at their respective homes for peace and security of the motherland, instead of gathering for the Friday’s congregational prayers.

This action is a sign of solidarity with the Catholic Community and a protest against the barbaric act of ruthless terrorists’, the minister said.

Courtesy Adaderana

A suspicious lorry, which bears the number WP DAE 4197 and purportedly used to transfer bombs for the suicide attacks on Easter Sunday, has been apprehended at Nayakkanda in Wattala.

It is reported that the lorry is registered under one of the suicide bombers at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo.

The interrogations into one of the suspects arrested in Nawagampura area has led to the seizure of this suspicious lorry, the police said.

Investigations are being carried out to confirm if the lorry was used to transport explosive devices.

Courtesy Adaderana

All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) stated that they will not accept the bodies of the individuals who carried out the Easter Day attacks.

Holding a press conference today (25), Sri Lanka’s main Islamic Cleric association stated that they vehemently condemn these attacks and that those who are responsible for this attack must be brought before the law and given maximum punishment.

The ACJU states that there is no place for terrorism in Islam and that the Muslims of Sri Lanka condemns all forms of violence, extremism, and terrorism. They stated that they clearly wish to emphasize that in the history of Sri Lankan Muslims nobody has ever partaken in such a violent act.

ACJU declared, Those who committed this barbaric attack on innocent civilians do not belong to us. Hence we categorically state that we will not accept their bodies. They have not done any good on behalf of us.”

Speaking on the recent debate on the traditional Muslim female garb Burqa creating identity issues the ACJU said:

Considering the situation of emergency and the security of the country, we request all our sisters to cooperate and identify themselves and remove their face veil whenever it is necessary. Do not create any situation where others will feel threatened. We request them to carry their identification and corporate with the security officials.”

The ACJU pointed out that the ACJU and the Muslim organizations under ACJU issued a joint declaration against the ISIS on 22nd July 2015. It should be noted that since the declaration was made the ACJU and other Muslim organizations have been continuously informing the defense authorities and requested them to take necessary actions against the individuals who hold extremist ideologies, stated ACJU.

The ACJU stated that the Eastern Muslim community had alerted the police on one of the individuals behind the attacks. They even have gone to the extent of holding protests demanding the arrest of the person, said ACJU.

Furthermore, the ACJU requests all the Christian and Catholic communities to carry out their religious activities on Sunday at the churches as usual and that they, the ACJU, would provide the necessary security they need to carry out their worshipping. If the Christian and Catholic communities do not feel safe to visit churches, the ACJU will support them to carry out the religious activity at safer places.

They will be writing to the Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith with this regard, they further said. 

Courtesy Adaderana

198 detonators have been recovered from Hawa Eliya area in Nuwara Eliya this morning (25).

Nuwara Eliya Police had received a tip-off on a suspicious parcel abandoned near a culvert in Hawa Eliya area.

In a joint search operation carried out by the Army and the Police, 198 detonators were found inside the parcel.

The police suspect that the detonators were abandoned at the culvert as its owner was concerned about the ongoing extensive search operations in the area.

Further investigations are being carried out in this regard.

Courtesy Adaderana

A statement issued by the IGP warns of another possible attack by the terrorist group which carried out the Easter Day attacks.

The DIGs in charge of the Presidential Security Division, Special Security Division and Prime Minister’s Security Division has been informed by the IGP on this threat.

According to the statement, this terrorist group may target the Kuppu mosques also known as ‘Aulia’ mosque for their next attacks.

The United States Embassy in Colombo too has issued a warning of a possible attack and requested the public to avoid places of worship and large crowds.

By Hafeel Farisz in Kattankudy Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The entire family, 2 brothers, a sister and the parents of Zahran Hashim the suspected mastermind of the Easter Sunday massacre have been missing since April 18, 2019, his sister Mohomed Hashim Madaniya aged 25 told the Daily Mirror exclusively.

I went and gave food to my parents and my sisters family on April 18, and haven’t heard from them since” she told us, at her house in Kattankudy located around the mosque of National Thawheed Jamath in Kattankudy.

Providing exclusive access and details of a chilling tail of radicalization of which the sister insists she had been against, and members of the mosque completely dissociating themself with, the Daily Mirror was told that Hashim was a gifted orator and a loving family man until his sudden disappearance”

The family included five children with Zahran Hashim being the oldest (33) he is married to Mohomed Haadiya (23) a resident of Kekenuwella, Kurunegala and is the father of two children aged a boy aged eight and a girl aged four.

His brother Mohomed Zeyin Hashim (30) is married to Abdul Gafoor Afrin (23) and has two children a boy aged 5 and a girl aged 3. The third was Mohomed Rilwan Hashim (28) Nafha (20) and is the father of two children aged 5 years and the other a six month old boy.

The remaining sister Mohomed Yaseera Hashim (20) was married to Mohomed Rishad (22) and is the mother of a boy aged one year, all of whom have left without a trace.

I don’t know where they are. From the 18th onwards I have had no contact with them” she told us.

Accordingly all the family members including the parents of Zahran, Hayath Mohomed Hashim (55) and Abdul Cader Sameema ( 50) have left no trace of their whereabouts since April 18th.

It was early 2017 when he started preaching things that we thought were out of line. They were things like the world was made for Muslims and was against other religions” she said.

My husband didn’t like what he was saying so we stopped our connections with him. That didn’t mean we were angry, its just that we stopped following him” the mother of three said.

On March 10, 2017 following an armed fight between moderate Sufi groups and those following the new mosque and denomination propagated by Zahran, he had reportedly gone missing”.

we didn’t hear from him after. He together with his brother Rilwan completely lost contact with all of us” Moulavi Thawufeek (33) the Head of the National Thawheed Jamath told Daily Mirror.

The National Thawheed Jamath was a denomination originated by Zahran in or around 2011.

Katankudy a small area of land with one of the highest density of population comprises 63 mosques. 8 of the mosques follow the Fundamentalist strand openly and the other barring 3 mosques follow different degrees of wahabist ideology” H. M Ameer from the Badriya Mosque told the Daily Mirror. The Jammiyathul Ulama are also supporters of the Wahabi ideology” he and Jaseem told the Daily Mirror.

The incident culminating in violence on March 10, 2017 was a result of rift between the Badriya Mosque followers of the Sufi Ideology and the religious strand that Hashim propogated.

There was a meeting to be held at the Aliya Junction at which Zahran was to speak when the violence broke out” both parties said, after which differing accounts were narrated as to what took place.

Nine persons from Zahran’s, National Thawheed Jamath were arrested by the Police and Two from the Badriya Mosque. The arrests included Zahran’s brother Zeyin. The suspects had been remanded for over 7 months according to one of the suspects Mohomed Rifaz (32).

Speaking to the Daily Mirror at the two storied mosque of which one storey is yet to be completed, Rifaz said Zahran went missing” after the Police came after him.

We didn’t know of his whereabouts till he started posting videos on Facebook around June 2017” the Daily Mirror were told by the members of the NTJ. We completely disassociated ourselves from him after we saw his videos” they told us after which they showed the Daily Mirror a letter which had been issued by the Mosque expelling Zahran from the mosque.

The fact that the Mosque was a small non sophisticated one with no approval nor accounting books issuing a letter of expulsion” could not be lost.

That is a complete lie. We have information that he visited the mosque around six weeks ago,” Ameer from the Badriya mosque insisted. We had informed authorities of him starting in 2012. We in fact gave dockets to 11 authorities including the Secretary of Defence, the Inspector General and the Attorney General detailing the extremism carried out by Zahran and his ideology,” Ameer told the Daily Mirror. They all fell on deaf ears,” Mohomed Jaseem a trustee said.

Ameer and Jaseem both showed the Daily Mirror the docket which they provided to the authorities on March 27, 2017. The docket details the hatred espoused by Zahran, and contradicts the version of the NTJ that the radicalisation took place after he fled from the police.

The complaint includes preachings by Zahran to the effect that Islam should be the only religion in the island,and that Muslims should not pledge allegiance to the country.

” We gave this to the authorities in black and white. We told them that these guys were preaching some crazy radicalised fundamentalism and that there is a threat to our lives. We did this from as far back as 2012″  Jaseem told the Daily Mirror.

According to those at the National Thawheed Jamath mosque, Zahran had single handedly originated a new denomination and built a mosque through donations given by those attending Jumma prayers” an account rubbished by Ameer.

They opened a new mosque because they got funds from foreign entities. They couldn’t be with the other fundamentalists because the money wasn’t coming in,” Jaseem told us.

The members of the NTJ however,  insist that up until his fleeing from the Police following the clashes on March 10, 2017 Zahran was a peaceful preacher.

We did a lot of charity work and we followed Islam how it should be,” they told us adding that it was following his postings in June 2017 that they realized Zahran had deviated from their path. However, according to the sister Madaniya his radical preaching commenced before.

He had just stared to preach things against the Government, against courts, and against other religions. He may have had 2 to 3 sermons like that when the clash took place in March,” she told us, refuting the underground radicalization” claim of the NTJ members.

Zahran had preached from time to time during the Five years commencing 2012 to 2017 at various junctions”. By all accounts he was a preacher who could hold a crowd. Around 2000 to 3000 people participated at his public sermons although they didn’t go to his mosque,” we were told.

I met Zeyin and his Family last around February,” Madaniya told the Daily Mirror. She claims to have had no contact with Rilwan who had also fled together with his brother Zahran following the clashes of March 10, 2017.

Intelligence sources claim that Zahran may not have been one of the bombers as they scramble to make distinct identification of them. Zahran and his family accordingly may still be at large.

I fear for my safety. We live under a lot of tension,” Madaniya said. Its unbearable to know what has happened. I don’t want to have anything to do with him and hope he is dead,” she told the Daily Mirror.

When asked as to what she believes is the reason her immediate family have been untraceable she said she assumed the worst.

They must have joined him. They never spoke to me about him because they knew my husband didn’t like him. I am the only one who has to take on all of this blame and suffering now. I don’t want to have anything to do with any of them,” she said after being asked of the alternative of the family being alive.

Moulavi Thawufeek insisted that the actions have got nothing to do with religion”. These are despicable acts and have got nothing to do with religon” he said after quoting the Quranic verse stating that the killing of a single man meant the killing of humanity”.

Thawufeek who succeeded Zahran had known the suspected mastermind since 2002. I knew him from the time he was reading at the Al- Falah Madrasa. He couldn’t complete his studies and had to leave in 2007”.

Thawufeek together with the rest present in the mosque insisted that they had not watched the vidoes of Hashim following the realization of his radicalization.

Yes he was an ISIS sympathizer and we were told of it by people. But we didn’t watch his videos” they said.

According to Moulavi Thawfueek, Intelligence Agencies were fully aware of Zahran and his preaching.

” During the past two years they used to visit the mosque at least once a week if not more. They were here a few weeks ago too” he said, sentiments concurred by the rest of the gathering.

When asked as to if he had followers of his doctrine amongst them, he said that they could not be certain.

What you have in your heart only you would know. Even if people were supporters of ISIS they wouldn’t come out openly and tell us,” he said.

Carrying her 10 month old son, Madaniya said she fears for her safety, sentiments echoed by the members of the NTJ too.

” Im the only one from the family and its alot of heartbreak and suffering” she said.

Moulavi Thawufeek also insisted that they remained fearful.

” The forces walk in and out every other day and we might not be able to practice our religion. We are fearful that this mosque we built with so much hardship will be brought down. We are also living under a lot of tension and we want our side of the story told” he said.

Ameer and Jaseem of the Badriya mosque were also fearful of theirs.

We were the only people who stood up against this fundamentalist and we fear for our lives. They will come after us” they said.

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA

, 22^nd April 2019

A State Minister of Defence has said on the floor on Parliament that the ‘Easter Bombings’ of 21^st April 2019 were in response to the Christchurch attacks against Muslims in New Zealand.  Meanwhile, almost simultaneously, it is reported in the internet that ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombings.  For now, as a private citizen, I choose to remain skeptical of the Minister’s claims as well as the reports that ISIS is behind the bombings, for reasons I will explain in a moment.

What is crucial is that, the bombings not be permitted to become a pretext for the Government to join the U.S.’s ‘War on Terror.’  For the past four years, the U.S. and India (the U.S.’s new ally in Asia) have been busy trying to gain maximum indirect control over Sri Lanka in order to prevent the Chinese from establishing a presence in this country.  They would have succeeded had it not been for the collapse of the ‘National Government’ and the subsequent collapse of the drive to enact a new Constitution. 

It is also well-known that an attempt by the U.S. to push through a defence agreement with Sri Lanka, one that would give the U.S. privileged access to strategic parts of this country including its harbours is on hold, because of the lack of support.  Finally, most Sri Lankans are counting the days to the next Presidential and General elections.  It is expected that a pro-nationalist Government will take over and begin the process of returning control of the country back to its population.  

All this can be reversed if Sri Lanka signs on to the ‘War on Terror,’ which would give the U.S. a new lease to continue interfering in the internal affairs of this country.  Sri Lankan investigators must be given sufficient time to get to the bottom of who is responsible for the Easter Bombings.  In my view, investigators should look into whether the bombings were orchestrated by a foreign intelligence agency/agencies (i.e. the Indian and American intelligence services) using local or international Islamist terrorists.   

a)         THE MINISTER’S CLAIM THAT THE EASTER BOMBINGS WERE A RESPONSE TO THE CHRISTCHURCH ATTACK          

To the best of my knowledge the Christchurch attack happened on the 15^th of March 2019.  The Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka happened on the 21^st of April 2019.  Many people seem to agree that at least by 4^th April 2019 and certainly by around 10^th April 2019, one of more foreign intelligence agencies had warned of some sort of attack in Sri Lanka.  Most people agree that, in terms of scale and sophistication, the Easter Bombings have few if any parallels in the annals of terrorism. 

So, the Minister would have us believe that, barely two weeks after the attack in Christchurch New Zealand, an obscure group of fanatics in Sri Lanka—a group whose only significant act of violence prior to 21^st April appears to have been to shoot the secretary to Kabir Hashim, the prominent UNP Parliamentarian![1]—managed to, a) acquire the specialized knowledge and skill to assemble suicide vests and/or backpacks, and also IED’s, b) acquire the requisite explosives for such devices, c) finalize the tactical plans including logistics and surveillance for an operation that would have made Pottu Amman proud, and d) coral together at least seven highly trained suicide bombers.  As an American might say, ‘You gotta be kidding me!’  

b) ISIS HAS PURPORTEDLY CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE BOMBINGS

There are reports that ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombings.  There are also reports that videos showing the purported bombers pledging their allegiance to ISIS have been posted on ISIS websites.  However, I choose to remain skeptical until our own security services confirm the links, because of the following reasons. 

First, to the best of my knowledge, when ISIS and other international Islamist terrorists have carried out attacks outside the Middle East, it has been against countries that have troops actively fighting Muslims either in the Middle East or regions of the world that ISIS and others consider to be ‘Muslim lands.’  To my knowledge, Sri Lanka does not have troops fighting in such regions.

Second, certain experts on Islamic terrorism/jihadism—for instance persons such as the British journalist Robert Fisk, one of the few Western reporters ever to personally interview Osama Bin Laden—have said that the jihadists have a tendency to warn their adversaries before an attack, and also to offer terms.[2] 

Apparently, there is an injunction in the Koran that an adversary must be warned before being attacked. Whatever else the Islamist terrorists may or may not be, there is no question that they take the Koran seriously.  In the case of Sri Lanka there has been no warning, at least by the attackers.    

Finally, if killing Christians was the motive, then how does none explain the attacks on the hotels?  Three hotels were targeted—Kingsbury, Cinnamon Grand and Shangri La—which shows that at least one of the motives behind the attacks had to be to strike at Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. 

Tourism is one of the few means by which this country is still able to earn an income.  Whoever is behind these attacks wanted to deprive the country of that income also.  So, the attack is not purely against the Christians, it is against the country as a whole.  It is difficult to imagine what Sri Lanka could have done to ISIS or any other international Islamist terrorist group to make them hate this country to such an extent. 

c)         A FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY/AGENCIES CARRIED OUT THE ATTACKS USING LOCAL ISLAMIST TERRORISTS/FANATICS

It is not in dispute that, the Siri-Wiki regime that came to power in January 2015 was a boon to the Americans and the Indians, especially the former.  In retrospect, the Siri-Wiki regime can be seen as a predictable offshoot of the ‘Pivot to Asia’ policy of the Americans begun under the Obama Administration and continued under President Trump. 

The purpose of the ‘Pivot’ is to consolidate American military as well as economic dominance over Asia.  It is accompanied by a military/naval strategy whose primary focus is to counter Chinese influence in the region and ultimately encircle China itself.[3]  Sri Lanka which sits at a strategically vital spot in the Indian Ocean is crucial for both the Americans as well as the Chinese, the former in order to further entrench their control over this region, the latter to break out of the ‘encirclement.’ 

The Siri-Wiki regime has now collapsed in Sri Lanka, and most people expect that any new Government that will take over will be heavily pro-nationalist as well as pro-Chinese.  In short, all the hopes that the Americans/Indians had in January 2015 are now in ruins, and the ‘gains’ they made in the last 4 years are very much in danger of being reversed. 

If we consider the Easter Bombings from the above perspective, it is impossible not to see that the bombings offer a wonderful opportunity for the Americans to continue to pursue in this country their goals in respect of the ‘Pivot.’

To digress a moment, if I am not mistaken, in Somalia, under the pretext of helping the Government there fight Al Shahab, the Americans have managed to gain various concessions that have allowed them to make Somalia a key station in AFRICOM, the new American military command for Africa.  AFRICOM began under the Bush Administration but was vastly expanded under the Obama Administration.  It is being further extended and consolidated under Trump. 

Len Wengraf, a respected American academic, discusses AFRICOM in its early years in the following terms, and they are highly relevant to Sri Lanka under the present circumstances.  He says:

‘The Obama Administration is also a strong proponent of AFRICOM, a new U.S. military command for Africa officially launched on October 1, 2008, with the frightening potential to subject Somalia and other countries and regions to U.S. terror on a new scale.  In fact, AFRICOM would mean the Somali experience writ large for the entire continent, with local proxies and enhanced military reinforcements. 

As Nunu Kadane put it in an article titled, ‘AFRICOM, Militarization and Resource Control’:

If you’re thinking traditional bases with thousands of military personnel, think again.  General Kip Ward has said it is not about bases” and garrisons” but rather a network of sophisticated military operations strategically placed throughout the continent, which can be moved around and utilized for any purpose.

General Gates called AFRICOM a different kind of command with a different kind of orientation, one that we hope and expect will institutionalize a lasting security relationship with Africa.”  It is a civilian-military partnership” where diplomatic and humanitarian relief by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will get directives from the Department of Defence.’[4]  

The point is this.  If under the pretext of helping to fight ISIS and other Islamist terrorists in Sri Lanka, the U.S. extends something like AFIRCOM to this country, we are finished.  So this is something that Sri Lankans will have to watch out for.  Also, to recall Somalia, if I am not mistaken, around 2006, the Americans, claiming that the Somalia had become a breeding ground for terrorists, got Ethiopia to invade and occupy Somalia. 

If Sri Lanka is portrayed as a breeding ground for Islamist terrorists who are not just a menace to this country but to others as well, particularly our big neighbor to the North, it is possible to envision a scenario where the Indians might be enticed into invading and occupying this country or at any rate setting up a puppet regime here, a regime directly answerable to New Delhi.  Such a thing would solve both the Indians’ as well as Americans’ problems in respect of the Chinese presence in Sri Lanka.  

To repeat, these are all opportunities that the Easter Bombings have created.  Under the circumstances, I hope our investigators look into the possibility that the Indian or American intelligence services had something to do with these attacks. 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Sri Lanka needs either a Presidential election or General Elections as soon as possible.  We must have a chance to choose the leaders who we think are capable of meeting this new threat.  Under no circumstances should the bombings or the security situation in the country be made an excuse for postponing elections.

• If Sri Lanka is to seek foreign assistance to fight the Islamist terrorists, it is wiser to look to Russia than to the U.S.  Russia at least proved in Syria that it knows how to beat the Islamists.  In contrast, as a general rule, wherever the Americans have got involved they have only increased Islamist terrorism rather than diminished it.

• In my view, the best long-term solution to the rise of Islamist terrorism as well as Tamil separatism/terrorism in this country is to resettle large numbers of Sinhalese people in the North and East of the country and thereby prevent the growth of ethnic enclaves which have tended to thrive especially over the last 30-40 years.  So, a practical plan to move, say, a minimum of 200,000 Sinhalese to the North and East over the next two years must be put together as soon as possible. 

[1] See ‘Kabir:  Suspect released by police due to powerful politician’s intervention carried out Easter attack,’ The Island, 23^rd April 2019

[2] See for instance, ‘9/11 Remembered:  Robert Fisk’s Close Encounter with Osama Bin Laden,’ The Independent, 11^th September 2018, www.independent.co.uk

[3] See John Pilger, ‘A World War Has Begun:  Break the Silence,’ www.counerpunch.org, 23^rd March 2016

[4] Len Wengraf, ‘The Nightmare in Somalia,’ Counterpunch, 13^th February 2009

Sri Lanka News

A previously little-known group called the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) is being accused of having carried out the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan officials pinned the blame on the NTJ at a news conference on Monday.

Until Monday, when the Sri Lankan government spokesman mentioned its name, very few people had heard of the NTJ.

The group is believed to have splintered off from another hardline Islamist group in the country, the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath (SLTJ).

While still relatively unknown, the SLTJ is a bit more established. Its secretary, Abdul Razik, was arrested in 2016 for inciting hatred against Buddhists. He later issued an apology.

Vishwa Karma exclusive interview with a Muslim lawyer.

Ada Derana news

Archbishop of Sri Lanka Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has urged not to hold services at Catholic churches until further notice.

The Cardinal stated this during a press conference held today (24) following a discussion with the ambassadors of Muslim-majority countries in Sri Lanka.

He has also urged to work with peace considering the situation prevailing in the country.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said that all parties should ensure that the Muslim community is not being harassed at this moment.

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Opposition MP Dinesh Gunawardane yesterday told the government that it should not by any circumstance allow foreign security forces to enter this country at this moment.

He also urged the government to conduct an investigation into the issuance of Visas to thousands of foreigners under lax conditions.

He told parliament that investigations into the matter should be carried out immediately and said it was pointless asking the IGP to do so.

MP Gunawardane said the government failed to act on information given by the intelligent services and added that it could not get away from the responsibility by claiming that it was not aware of such an attack.

“Information was there on extremist groups since 2016. The Government was well aware of it. It cannot get away saying that it was not aware,” he said.

He said if the government could not defeat this extremist terrorist groups, it should quit and hand over this country to someone who could do it.

He said the country could not be governed when there was a crisis between the President and the Prime Minister and stressed the need to pay way for a new government. (

Six hundred Pakistanis, who had been living within the Negombo Police Division owing to deportation from Pakistan, have been taken into the Ahmadiyya Community Center in Nittambuwa, stated Ada Derana reporter.

Reportedly, the relevant Pakistan nationals had been deported from Pakistan due to the war situation in Pakistan via the United Nations.

However, the owners of the houses they had been temporarily living in, had asked them to leave the house owing to the recent Easter Day attacks, stated Ada Derana reporter.

Accordingly, upon a complaint received by the Negombo Police regarding the safety of the deported Pakistanis, they have been escorted to the Community Center.

Ada Derana reporter further stated that funds have been received from the United Nations and the Pakistan government for the support of these deported Pakistanis.

Courtesy Adaderana

The CCTV footages of the suicide bomb attacks on Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo have been released to the media.

The suicide bomber arrives at the Taprobane restaurant of the hotel at 9.12 a.m. when it was filled with guests having breakfast.

The bomber appears to be nervously hovering near the diners prior to detonating the vest.

Meanwhile, the CCTV footages of two suicide bombers arriving at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo has also been released to the media.

They enter the hotel’s elevator and get off at the third floor of the building to enter the restaurant, where they detonated the bombs.

Zahran Hashmi, considered to be the mastermind of the series of suicide bomb attacks was captured in this footage.

The death toll of these terror attacks have increased to 359 as of yesterday (24), and 39 foreign tourists are among the dead.

Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D.

On Easter Sunday Sri Lanka suffered suicide bombers attacks which resulted over 300 deaths. At least 45 children were among those that perished. The Isis has claimed responsibility for these suicide bombings. Thesesuicide bombings are the results of religious fundamentalism. 

Suicide terrorism is not a modern phenomenon.  Suicide attack is an ancient practice with a modern history. The threat of suicide bombing attacks has escalated worldwide (Almogy et al., 2004).

As described by Horowitz (2015) a suicide bombing is an attack where the death of the bomber is the means by which the attack is accomplished. Suicide bomber could be defined as an individual carrying high explosive device, attached to his/her body and must be recognized as a separate medicolegal entity (Ruwanpura et al., 2008).

Martyrdom operations are the targeted use of self-destructing humans against noncombatant typically civilian populations to effect political change (Atran, 2003). The suicide terrorism is an operational method in which the very act of the attack is dependent upon the death of the perpetrator (Boaz, 2000). The attacker does not expect to survive the mission.

The literature on suicide terrorism has been dominated by political and social theories (Sheehan, 2014). Psychological, social and political forces contribute to suicide terrorism. Often collective identity motivates their terrorist behavior.  Indoctrination is a unique feature of suicide terrorism (Grimland, Apter, & Kerkhof, 2006). Also group dynamics play a major role (Jayatunge, 2008). Although religion is not a single, simple causal factor in terrorist violence, religious elements often feature strongly in the belief systems associated with terrorist violence(Rogers et al., 2007). Miller (2006) states that psychological and religious dynamics are often associated with suicide terrorism. In addition the cultures of martyrdom is a contributing factor in suicide operations (Hafez, 2007).

The psychology of suicide terrorism is complex. The Suicide attackers do not operate in a vacuum (Jayatunge, 2008). Suicide bombing is the result of a highly complex interaction between many forces (Grimland et al., 2006).Suicide terrorism is strategically planned, rather than randomly performed by individual fanatics (Kao & McAlister, 2018). For suicide terrorists personal identity, which has been shattered by helplessness, shame, and humiliation, is replaced by group identity (Volkan, 1997). Suicide bombing are best understood when analyzed on personality level, an organizational level, and an environmental level.

Suicide bombers have common psychological features such as isolation, feelings of emptiness, cold rationality, a lack of empathy, and a lust for martyrdom and death (Marazziti Det al., 2018). Townsend (2007) hypothesized that suicide bombers are not truly suicidal and should not be viewed as a subgroup of the general suicide population.According to Townsend (2007) suicide is associated with psychopathology, and suicide terrorists do not exhibit overt psychopathology. Furthermore suicide terrorism has murderous intent.

There are connections between mental illness and terrorism (Weatherston & Moran, 2003). Psychiatric disorders such as depression and PTSD are higher among the suicide bombers (Sheehan, 2014). Suicide bombers can commit an extreme form of violence without any remorse.