{"id":87888,"date":"2019-04-28T17:05:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T00:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87888"},"modified":"2019-05-12T16:15:47","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T23:15:47","slug":"easter-sunday-bomb-blast-in-sri-lanka-part-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/28\/easter-sunday-bomb-blast-in-sri-lanka-part-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"EASTER SUNDAY BOMB BLAST IN SRI LANKA Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Revised\n3.5.19, 12.5.19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Easter\nSunday, April 21 2019 there were consecutive bomb blasts in two Roman Catholic\nchurches, one Evangelist church, and three five star hotels. The churches were\nSt. Anthony’s, Kochchikade, Colombo, St Sebastian\u2019s,   Katuwapitiya, Negombo and Zion Church,\nBatticaloa. The blasts took place around 8.45 am. The first blast was reported\nat St Anthony\u2019s, followed by a second at St Sebastian\u2019s. The roof of St\nAnthony\u2019s had been blown almost entirely off. At St Sebastian\u2019s, buildings in\nthe area shook with the blast.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a\nthird Catholic Church on the list, St. Mary\u2019s, Batticaloa.  However, a priest had seen the suicide bomber\nlurking around the St Mary\u2019s complex the previous day. The Easter service was\nadvanced to 7 am instead of 7.30 and by the time the suicide bomber arrived,\nthe mass had ended and the congregation had left. When the bomber found that\nmost of the congregation had left, he had made his way to the evangelist Zion\nChurch, about 50 meters down the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An alert churchgoer, seeing the bomber\u2019s back\npack had detained him. The bomber claimed his backpack held a video camera and\nhe had come to film worshippers. It was not a convincing explanation. He was\nasked to leave. Barred from entering the church, the bomber detonated the bomb\noutside. Catholic and Protestant \nchurches cut short their Easter services and sent the congregation home,\nwhen the news of the bomb blasts reached them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It later\nemerged  later that a fourth church had\nbeen targeted, St. Theresa Church, Kilinochchi.  Parish priest of St. Theresa Rev Father A.J\nJesudasan said that a person, arrested in connection with the bomb attacks, had\nrevealed the decision to attack St Theresa Church. It was also felt that the\nreal target at Negombo would have been St Mary\u2019s Negombo, it was  the biggest church there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bombs also\nwent off at three hotels In Colombo, Kingsbury, Shangri La and Cinnamon Grand,\nThe blasts took place in the restaurants that were serving Easter Sunday\nbreakfast. Cinnamon Grand was hit sometime after   8.30. Kingsbury and Shangri-La were hit\nat   9 am approximately. The blast had\nbeen felt on the 17th<\/sup> floor at Shangri La. The bombers\nhad checked into the hotels the night before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fourth hotel,\nTaj Samudra was also on the list, but the suicide bomber failed to carry out\nhis task. His handler, not wanting to waste the bomb, had thereafter instructed\nhim to go to Dehiwala and explode the bomb at St Mary\u2019s Dehiwela, but security\nwas too tight there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were\nseven suicide bombers.  All   were Sri Lankan citizens  and all were Muslim. They operated singly,\nexcept for Shangri-La where there were two. The extensive\ndamage caused to the buildings indicated that military-grade high explosives\nwere used. The explosive used, triacetone triperoxide dubbed \u2018Mother of Satan\u2019\nwas made in a copper factory in Wellampitiya owned by Inshaf Ahamad, who died\nbombing Cinnamon Grand. The death toll was 290 with 500 injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The horrified\npublic, glued to the television, nevertheless found the whole thing somewhat\nstaged. There was visible uniformity, right down to the identical jeans,\nbaseball cap, the backpack and even the way of walking. At Katuwapitiya the\nbomber stayed well within the range of the CCTV cameras.  He pats a child on his way into the church.\nHow easily, casually and confidently, as shown on CCTV, the suicide bombers\nwho blasted the church in Negombo and the two hotels walked with explosives in\nbackpacks\u201d, commented Cassandra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts have\nflatly dismissed the notion that this was a home grown attack. The first\nefforts of small, homegrown extremist groups are usually marked by failure.\nSome of the bombs fail to detonate entirely. Others explode early or late, and\nstill others cause smaller blasts than their builders intended. But in this\ncase, all seven bombs had detonated accurately. \nThe attackers were unusually successful, especially for a group with no\ntrack record of large-scale assaults. This shows that the group has received\nsupport from a global terror network, experts  \nsaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a very well coordinated\nsophisticated attack said experts. It was meticulously planned and executed\nwithin just 20 minutes. There would\nhave been months of planning, possibly years,\nwith foreign agents arriving in Sri Lanka to advice on the execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Yahapalana has pinned the blame for the attack\non   a radical Islamist group called the\nNational Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). Until\nnow, National Thowheed Jama\u2019ath was known mainly  for vandalizing Buddhist statues in Mawanella\nin December 2018. The NTJ was formed in Kattankudy, in 2014. It is a splinter\ngroup of the hard-line Islamist group, the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath\n(SLTJ).  Its founder Zahran Hashim is\nbelieved to have been the suicide bomber who targeted Shangri-La Hotel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NTJ is\na tiny organization with few hundred followers, said analysts. it\nconsists almost entirely of young people, especially recent graduates of\nIslamic schools. The group   has no\nhierarchy or organizational structure and no older leaders.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terrorism experts\nare definite that NTJ does not have the capability to plan,\ntrain and execute the Easter Sunday attacks. Such coordinated suicide\nattacks,   at several places, at the same\ntime with such powerful explosives were beyond them.  Procuring explosives, getting  them into the country, assembling them,\ntraining persons  to handle such\nexplosives, planning the logistics and execution  of the task are beyond the capability of this\ntiny outfit, they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such an\nextensively planned and coordinated attack would almost certainly have required\nconsiderable financing as well as expertise from an experienced group overseas.\nThe brilliant\nexecution of these bomb blasts clearly indicated a foreign hand. There is an\ninternational force behind this, experts said. A foreign entity, most likely a\nforeign state or state intelligence agency was behind the attacks. The locals\nare merely pawns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the\nlevel of sophistication, this was probably the work of al-Qaeda or Islamic\nState, announced analysts.  Sure enough, two days later, ISIS\n(Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) claimed responsibility for the killings but\nwithout providing any evidence. ISIS\nonly released a photograph which claimed to show the seven suicide\nbombers.  Expect for Zaharan Hashim, the\nfaces of the others are completely covered. The photo generated no interest,\nand the ISIS argument was immediately dismissed.  ISIS only carries out attacks against\ncountries that are fighting Muslims. That is not the case in Sri Lanka, said  the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts think otherwise .The sophistication\nof the synchronized blasts in Sri Lanka, are indicative of a much more sinister\ndesign by the ISIS. The extent of planning and calculation that went into\nplanting the right amount of explosives so as to inflict the kind of damage\nthat was done, plus the level of sophistication in the use of detonators and\nfuses, as well as the extent of radicalization, should clear all doubts over\nwhether or not the Islamic State has spread its wings to South Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has long been specifically looking\nat recruiting young engineers, computer professionals and other qualified\nindividuals so as not to go wrong in either planning or execution of attacks.\nThe group has done away with any form of satellite communication to avoid being\ntracked. What is now a cause for concern is the pattern of lethal, coordinated\nexplosive vector attacks, which can\u2019t be traced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yahapalana government\n however, offered three separate causes\nfor the attacks. JVP said the bomb attacks were to create a Muslim state in Sri\nLanka. State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene said that \u2018preliminary\ninvestigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was in retaliation\nfor the attack against Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand. That cannot be, replied critics. These\nbombings would have been planned months or years ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister\nRanil Wickremasinghe said the attacks were a part of global terrorism. Global\nterrorism had now come to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka too is now in the global\nterrorist incidents map thanks to those who unleashed terror on Easter Sunday,\nhe said in Parliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the\npublic do not think it is ISIS, Christchurch or global terrorism. They think it\nis the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America. The\npossibility of CIA is hinted at by the analysts. They said,\u201d A foreign entity, most\nlikely a foreign state or state intelligence agency was behind the attacks.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CIA knows\nabout bombs. In 1999 CIA admitted to bombing the Chinese\nembassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. They said it was an accident. They were going\nto bomb elsewhere. It is thought that CIA was responsible for the 2002 Bali\nbombings and the 2009 bomb blasts at Ritz-Carlton and the Marriott hotels\nIn Jakarta in 2009. It is also important to note that ISIS, which says it is responsible for the\nbomb blasts, was created by United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, so was al\nQaeda. So there is a USA link there too.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many said\nthat the moment they heard of the bomb blasts, the first thing that came to\nmind was this is CIA\u201d. The name was mentioned on television news on the 21st<\/sup>\nitself. (Derana 6.55 news. 21.4.19). This is not the first time that CIA has\nbeen suspected in Sri Lanka., L.H.Mettananda, who had access to political information,\n  had said in a private conversation that SWRD\nBandaranaike\u2019s assassination in the 1960s was done by the CIA. In the 1970s The\nJVP was considered a CIA organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public are\nangry about the bomb blasts. This has put the USA temporarily on the defensive\nin Sri Lanka. The US Navy and the Sri Lanka Navy to called off\ntheir CARAT military exercise at Hambantota port. After the NTJ attacks, foreign governments\nwere certain to review joint exercises conducted in Sri Lanka territory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US ambassador\nhas had to face interviews and questions. She is the only ambassador to be interviewed\nand questioned. The US ambassador, questioned by Amanpour,\ndenied the United States had prior knowledge of the Easter Sunday\nattacks.”We had no prior knowledge of these attacks,” US ambassador\nAlaina Teplitz told the CNN in an interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US ambassador said expert teams from the FBI\nand the US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) are helping with the bomb\ninvestigations. This was at the request of the Sri Lankan government. These\nteams are working side by side with Sri Lankan officials.\nThis cooperation is short-term, temporary, and specific to the\nrecent attacks and bringing the perpetrators to justice, said the US embassy in\na statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, USA is a prominent force in Sri Lanka\ntoday. The Yahapalana government is a creation of the USA.  At the Parliamentary debate on the bomb\nblasts, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe emphasized that US President,\nDonald Trump had phoned and offered assistance. Mike Pompeo US Secretary of\nstate had also phoned. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the US\nGovernment has given  Yahapalana\ngovernment a grant of USD 480 million for land related projects.  (Continued)\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 3.5.19, 12.5.19 On Easter Sunday, April 21 2019 there were consecutive bomb blasts in two Roman Catholic churches, one Evangelist church, and three five star hotels. The churches were St. Anthony’s, Kochchikade, Colombo, St Sebastian\u2019s,   Katuwapitiya, Negombo and Zion Church, Batticaloa. The blasts took place around 8.45 am. The first blast was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87888","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=87888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}