{"id":155486,"date":"2026-04-03T16:37:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=155486"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:37:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:37:49","slug":"the-politician-gammanpila-claims-in-a-new-book-that-he-has-identified-zahran-hashim-as-the-brain-behind-the-easter-sunday-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/04\/03\/the-politician-gammanpila-claims-in-a-new-book-that-he-has-identified-zahran-hashim-as-the-brain-behind-the-easter-sunday-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"The politician Gammanpila claims in a new book that he has identified Zahran Hashim as the brain behind the Easter Sunday attacks."},"content":{"rendered":"

Chandre Dharmawardana.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In his book titled “Searching for the Mastermind of the Easter Sunday Attacks” (or Uncovering the Mastermind of the Easter Attacks), launched on March 31, 2026, Udaya Gammanpila identifies Zahran Hashim as the sole mastermind behind the 2019 Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gammanpila’s findings, which he claims are the result of over a year of research, include several specific assertions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gammanpila argues that evidence and logic confirm Zahran Hashim alone was the mastermind, dismissing theories of an “invisible hand” or external masterminds as misleading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Role of Shani Abeysekara:<\/strong> At the book launch event held at the Sri Sambuddhatva Jayanti Mandiraya, Gammanpila claimed that former CID Director Shani Abeysekara “paved the way” for the attacks, citing 11 specific reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motivation for the Timing: <\/strong>The book alleges that while the attacks were originally planned for August 2021, Hashim accelerated the timeline to April 2019 following commands from ISIS leaders to seek revenge for an incident in New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Controversy and Criticism: The book has faced criticism from political figures like Navin Dissanayake, who noted that Zahran Hashim had already been identified as a key figure in previous official reports, such as the Presidential Commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Predidential commission had also identified Zaharan as the main person, what is wrong or novel or surprising about Gammanpila also confirming it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, has expressed strong dissatisfaction with Udaya Gammanpila’s book<\/strong> and recent “revelations” as they go against the main stand taken by the Cardinal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cardinal believes in a “Grand Plot”:<\/strong> The Cardinal has long maintained that the attacks were not just the work of a few isolated extremists but part of a “grand political plot”. He has specifically questioned whether the attacks were used to create chaos and fear for electoral gains in the 2019 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By identifying Zahran Hashim as the sole mastermind, Gammanpila’s book dismisses the existence of a broader, more powerful group or an “invisible hand<\/strong>” that the Church believes pulled the strings. The Cardinal remains suspicious that the “real” masterminds who funded, trained, and aided the terrorists are being protected, but he has not presented any tangible evidence. The Cardinal ignores the fact that Zaharan and others had connections with the Middle-East, their extremist teachers, video and literature. They were not all that isolated and it was not the attacks of a few isolated extremists, but people in sync. with ISIS and wanting to revenge the New Zealand attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unanswered Questions: <\/strong>The Church has raised specific, unresolved issues that Gammanpila’s findings do not adequately address, such as the identity and role of “Sonic Sonic,” the links to military intelligence, and why prior warnings\u2014including those from India\u2014were ignored by authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “rumor” regarding “<\/strong>Sonic-Sonic<\/strong>“<\/strong> refers to an intelligence operative who is central to the Catholic Church’s claim that the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks involved a state-sponsored conspiracy<\/strong> rather than just isolated religious extremism. The government has officially identified “Sonic-Sonic” as a code name for a local intelligence officer<\/strong>. State officials claim this officer was tasked with “infiltrating” the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) and extremist rings to extract information. The controversy intensified after a 2023 Channel 4 documentary alleged that Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay<\/strong> (then a senior military intelligence figure) managed “Sonic-Sonic” and even met with the attackers. Whistleblowers claim this was part of a plot to create a security crisis that would influence the 2019 presidential election in favor of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This remains a very far-fetched claim. In February 2026<\/strong>, Suresh Sallay was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on charges of “conspiracy and aiding and abetting” the bombings. The Church views this as a breakthrough in finally uncovering the truth behind “Sonic-Sonic” and the broader network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accusations of Misdirection: The Cardinal has described these new writings by Gammanpila et al as attempts to “mislead the public” and “create confusion”. He believes certain groups are trying to distract from the pursuit of the full truth by rehashing old findings or targeting specific officials, like Shani Abeysekara, to settle political scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Case of Harin Fernando’s Father<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It was revealed during the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) that Harin Fernando’s father, who was in a hospital ICU at the time, received a call from a CID officer on the night before the attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The officer reportedly warned him of an imminent threat, leading the father to tell his son not to attend Easter services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 For the Cardinal, this is proof that the security apparatus knew exactly what was coming but chose to warn only a “select few” while leaving the general public and the Church in the dark. The Cardinal claims that if a CID officer could warn an MP’s father, the state clearly had actionable intelligence but purposefully failed<\/strong> to inform the Church hierarchy. Others claim that even senior church officials may have known about it but they had not taken it seriously, but no evidence has been adduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course the security apparatus KNEW about an impending attack as the Indian Secret Service had sent the warning. But President Sirisena\u2019s top officials did not take it seriously and did not act. The Cardinal clearly has his suspicions, but he has no additional evidence to back up his theory of a grand design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chandre Dharmawardana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chandre Dharmawardana. In his book titled “Searching for the Mastermind of the Easter Sunday Attacks” (or Uncovering the Mastermind of the Easter Attacks), launched on March 31, 2026, Udaya Gammanpila identifies Zahran Hashim as the sole mastermind behind the 2019 Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. Gammanpila’s findings, which he claims are the result of over a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chandre-dharmawardana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155487,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155486\/revisions\/155487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}