By Faizer Shaheid
Speculation has been rife that there had been a political hand in the planning and orchestration of the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019. The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on the Easter Sunday bombings seems to have explored various angles and established as many details as possible during the investigation.
Those who alleged the above include former President and incumbent parliamentarian Maithripala Sirisena, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, the then State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Nilantha Jayawardena, former Governor Azath Salley, and others.
The Indian connection
The abovementioned persons, together with the Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, then Police Special Task Force Head SDIG M.R. Latheef, then Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, then Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Shani Abeysekara, and politicians such as Rauf Hakeem and Mujibur Rahman had also alleged foreign influence.
However, only SDIG Jayawardena had been able to provide leads on possible foreign influence. He alleged that an Indian by the name of Abu Hind had possibly triggered the attacks. The testimony of Easter Sunday mastermind Zahran Hashim’s wife, Hadiya, confirmed that Zahran was in touch with Abu Hind from India. Zahran had believed that Abu Hind was the regional representative of the Islamic State (IS). It was believed that Abu Hind was constantly in touch with Zahran and his brother Rilwan, both of whom died in the explosions they triggered on 21 April 2019. Abu Hind had also spoken on the phone with Naufer, who is still in police custody.
In their attempts to uncover the identity of Abu Hind, the PCoI heard the testimony of an international terrorism expert the report does not name, owing to the sensitivity of the details. The expert had testified that Abu Hind was a character created by a section of a provincial Indian intelligence apparatus. The character was a part of an operation to keep track of Indian nationals who were travelling to join the IS, using Sri Lanka as a transit point. The operatives of the operational outfit would function through social media, pretending to be representatives of the IS.
Some of the operatives had even visited and trained in Sri Lankan madrasas (Islamic educational institutions) situated in the Negombo, Chilaw, and Puttalam areas. Indian intelligence had conveyed to the PCoI that many of the Indians who travelled to Syria had attended the Al Kama Madrasa in Kochchikade. It was also confirmed that an Indian national whom the report does not name and had played a role in a suicide attack in Afghanistan, had also visited Sri Lanka.
It was also confirmed that the information from Indian intelligence received on 4, 20, and 21 April 2019, was derived from the activities of this operation. However, the terrorism expert also testified that Zahran had been careful not to divulge the full plan of the operation. He had passed on many inaccurate details as well. For example, Zahran had conveyed that he planned on attacking the Indian High Commission, and that he only planned to attack one hotel and one church. Investigations are continuing to uncover the real identity of Abu Hind in order to uncover if there was a bigger plot.
Further to the role of Abu Hind, it had also become subsequently clear that the wife of one of the suicide bombers, Atchu Muhammadhu Muhammadhu Hasthun, by the name of Pulasthini Rajendran alias Sarah Jasmine, had also not died in the explosion in Sainthamaruthu. She had purportedly fled to India and the CID are intent on searching for her whereabouts.
Another angle of foreign influence
The PCoI also investigated another angle by alleging the involvement of a Sri Lankan domiciled in Australia. The PCoI mentions Lukman Thalib alias Abu Thalib. He is a Professor of Biostatistics and the Head of the Department of Public Health at the Qatar University and a Professor of Biostatistics at the Griffith University in Australia. In October 2020, the US Department of the Treasury named Lukman Thalib and two of his sons, Ahmed and Ismail, as facilitators of Al-Qaeda. He was subsequently arrested in Qatar the same month and detained for five months before being released without charges.
The PCoI finds that Prof. Lukman Thalib and others had helped fund the Sri Lanka Jamaat-e-Islami Student Movement (SLJISM) from where a few prominent members of Zahran’s group had stemmed. Two of these members, Mohamed Ibraheem Sadeeq Abdullah and Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Naufar, had featured prominently in the Easter attacks and continue to be in police custody. The PCoI states that Lukman Thalib had visited Sri Lanka on a few occasions and conducted discussions with Sadeeq. The PCoI also alleges that SSP Abeysekara had also testified that a few Australian subscriber/subscription identity/identification module cards were discovered from the blast site in Sainthamaruthu.
Following the release of Lukman Thalib and his son without any charge after their five-month detention in Qatar, Prof. Lukman Thalib has advised legal action against the Government of Sri Lanka for defaming him with false allegations.
Role of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe
While the role of foreign influence requires significantly more evidence for which investigations are still ongoing, the PCoI makes mention of several serious shortcomings on the part of politicians and the law enforcement authorities. In my previous article, the lapses of the law enforcement authorities were discussed, but their lapses were not without contribution from the political forces in the Government at the time.
The PCoI notes that the topic of Islamic extremism in Kattankudy had become a topic of contention since 2010, and that by 2016, the matter had become far too serious to ignore. The speech of then MP Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe in Parliament in 2016 on the migration of Muslims to join the IS was an eye-opener, but he was effectively neutralised and the topic was kept under wraps. The PCoI notes that national security had taken a backseat in view of the government policy of maintaining national harmony at the time. Therefore, even as the Minister of Defence and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, then President Sirisena had only conducted National Security Council (NSC) meetings irregularly.
SDIG Jayawardena also notes that Sirisena and then Premier Wickremesinghe always chose to reject the notion of Islamic extremism in Sri Lanka whenever it was taken up at the NSC meetings. SDIG Jayawardena had also personally notified Sirisena of Zahran’s Facebook threats in the aftermath of the Gintota riots. Sirisena had also admitted in his testimony that Jayawardena had kept the NSC informed of the threat of Zahran since 2016. Therefore, the PCoI finds that Sirisena was aware of the threat, but always advised the security forces not to take the matter seriously.
The PCoI also notes that on 16 April 2019, Sirisena had travelled to India and proceeded to Singapore without making any appointment for the Acting Minister of Defence. At the time, Sirisena was aware of the threat at the time of his departure, the PCoI finds.
Wickremesinghe was also fearful that the unity of the party may collapse if Muslim MPs chose to oppose him. Therefore, he always played down any presentation by the intelligence personnel on the rise and threat of Islamic extremism in the country. The PCoI had also noted that Sagala Ratnayaka, who was the Minister of Law and Order until 26 October 2018, had briefed Wickremesinghe of the threat of Islamic extremism.
The PcoI finds that the omissions of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe transcended that of civil negligence and imposes criminal liability upon them.
Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera
The PCoI has addressed the part played by Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera in no small measure. The PCoI recommends the proscription of his group, the BBS, and calls for the Attorney General to decide on whether to arrest him under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act for his inflammatory speeches in Aluthgama and Maharagama. The forceful violence he had unleashed upon the Muslims had been a major contributory factor that inspired many Muslim youths to be radicalised. The PCoI also names many other groups such as the Sihala/Sinhala Ravaya, the Mahason Balakaya, the Sinhala Jathika Sanvidanaya, the Ravana Balaya, and the Shiv Sena Movement, against whom the PCoI recommends the imposing of liabilities. However, the actions of Gnanasara Thera have been recognised as criminal in nature.
Rishad Bathiudeen
Despite all the allegations hurled at him, the PCoI has not found many of them to be true. The PCoI report only finds him accountable for only two charges, both of which do not appear to be major and neither of which appear to be conclusive.
One of the charges is in respect of his call to the Army Commander of the time, General Mahesh Senanayake. The evidence before the PCoI including the testimonies of the parties had revealed that he had contacted the Army Commander three times, all of which were in respect of one individual, Ihsan Meinudeen. Ihsan’s father is a class-one Sri Lanka Administrative Service officer in the state sector, and is personally known to Bathiudeen. The investigations reveal that the Army Commander had confirmed in his third call that Ihsan was in their custody and that there was no more to add to it. However, the PCoI seeks further investigation on the matter.
The second allegation is in respect of the sale of scrap metal from government corporations to Colossus (Pvt.) Ltd., which is a company owned by one of the bombers, Inshaf Ibrahim. The Industrial Development Board (IDB) was involved in the collection and sale of scrap metal, for which the criteria is given in the guidelines, none of which were found to be violated. However, the PCoI recommends further investigation on whether bribery was involved.
A further matter was also investigated by the PcoI in respect of a call made by Inshaf, to the brother of Rishad Bathiudeen, concerning a matter related to the IDB. While the PcoI has found nothing significant in their investigation, they have recommended further investigation concerning any bribery involved in the matter.
M.L.A.M. Hizbullah
The PCoI alleges that Hizbullah had worked closely with the Wahhabis and had contributed towards the Arabisation of Kattankudy. He was associated with Haroon Moulavi who had been invested in the activities of Zahran. Haroon Moulavi was also an organiser of a protest in 2012 where flags of the IS were carried. The PCoI finds Hizbullah to have contributed towards the rise of extremism in Kattankudy.
Other names
The PCoI also names Razik Rafaideen alias Abdul Razik, the Secretary of the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath (SLTJ), for his various connections to Zahran’s group and for his extremist preaching.
Mohamed Farook Mohamed Shibly is another politician who is alleged to have maintained direct links with Zahran and his group. He is said to have used his political influence to maintain the impunity of Zahran for many years. He is also said to have visited Zahran’s brother Rilwan in hospital with Rauff Hakeem after he was stabbed during a clash in 2017.
Dr. Muhamad Zufyan Muhamad Zafras is said to have helped admit Zahran’s brother Rilwan to the National Hospital in Colombo for the injuries he sustained after a bomb he was experimenting with accidentally went off. Although other doctors and nurses had conveyed their suspicions regarding the nature of the injuries sustained, the matter had not been referred to the Police.
Notable names missed out
Although Azath Salley had revealed in a press conference in 2017 that Zahran was on the loose and was causing mayhem in the East, no reference to this was made anywhere in the report. In that particular press briefing, he had also mentioned that the Chief Minister of the time was protecting him. At the time, the Chief Minister was Hafeez Nazeer of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), which had a known political association with Zahran and the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). It is surprising that the PCoI had omitted these details from the report, as they appear to be significant matters to be investigated.
Another matter notably left out is the allegation that Zahran was recruited under the payroll of the Defence Ministry in 2014. The notable non-reference to the allegation adds to the notion that the commission report is incomplete.
Conclusion
Although the report appears to have put in tremendous amounts of hard work, it does not appear to have concluded investigations. Let us hope that the matters remaining to be investigated will connect the missing dots and provide to us a fuller picture of those who aided and abetted in the heinous crimes that transpired on 21 April 2019.
(The author is a legal researcher. He can be contacted via faizer@live.com)
The abovementioned persons, together with the Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, then Police Special Task Force Head SDIG M.R. Latheef, then Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, then Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Shani Abeysekara, and politicians such as Rauf Hakeem and Mujibur Rahman had also alleged foreign influence.
However, only SDIG Jayawardena had been able to provide leads on possible foreign influence. He alleged that an Indian by the name of Abu Hind had possibly triggered the attacks. The testimony of Easter Sunday mastermind Zahran Hashim’s wife, Hadiya, confirmed that Zahran was in touch with Abu Hind from India. Zahran had believed that Abu Hind was the regional representative of the Islamic State (IS). It was believed that Abu Hind was constantly in touch with Zahran and his brother Rilwan, both of whom died in the explosions they triggered on 21 April 2019. Abu Hind had also spoken on the phone with Naufer, who is still in police custody.
In their attempts to uncover the identity of Abu Hind, the PCoI heard the testimony of an international terrorism expert the report does not name, owing to the sensitivity of the details. The expert had testified that Abu Hind was a character created by a section of a provincial Indian intelligence apparatus. The character was a part of an operation to keep track of Indian nationals who were travelling to join the IS, using Sri Lanka as a transit point. The operatives of the operational outfit would function through social media, pretending to be representatives of the IS.
Some of the operatives had even visited and trained in Sri Lankan madrasas (Islamic educational institutions) situated in the Negombo, Chilaw, and Puttalam areas. Indian intelligence had conveyed to the PCoI that many of the Indians who travelled to Syria had attended the Al Kama Madrasa in Kochchikade. It was also confirmed that an Indian national whom the report does not name and had played a role in a suicide attack in Afghanistan, had also visited Sri Lanka.
It was also confirmed that the information from Indian intelligence received on 4, 20, and 21 April 2019, was derived from the activities of this operation. However, the terrorism expert also testified that Zahran had been careful not to divulge the full plan of the operation. He had passed on many inaccurate details as well. For example, Zahran had conveyed that he planned on attacking the Indian High Commission, and that he only planned to attack one hotel and one church. Investigations are continuing to uncover the real identity of Abu Hind in order to uncover if there was a bigger plot.
Further to the role of Abu Hind, it had also become subsequently clear that the wife of one of the suicide bombers, Atchu Muhammadhu Muhammadhu Hasthun, by the name of Pulasthini Rajendran alias Sarah Jasmine, had also not died in the explosion in Sainthamaruthu. She had purportedly fled to India and the CID are intent on searching for her whereabouts.
Another angle of foreign influence
The PCoI also investigated another angle by alleging the involvement of a Sri Lankan domiciled in Australia. The PCoI mentions Lukman Thalib alias Abu Thalib. He is a Professor of Biostatistics and the Head of the Department of Public Health at the Qatar University and a Professor of Biostatistics at the Griffith University in Australia. In October 2020, the US Department of the Treasury named Lukman Thalib and two of his sons, Ahmed and Ismail, as facilitators of Al-Qaeda. He was subsequently arrested in Qatar the same month and detained for five months before being released without charges.
The PCoI finds that Prof. Lukman Thalib and others had helped fund the Sri Lanka Jamaat-e-Islami Student Movement (SLJISM) from where a few prominent members of Zahran’s group had stemmed. Two of these members, Mohamed Ibraheem Sadeeq Abdullah and Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Naufar, had featured prominently in the Easter attacks and continue to be in police custody. The PCoI states that Lukman Thalib had visited Sri Lanka on a few occasions and conducted discussions with Sadeeq. The PCoI also alleges that SSP Abeysekara had also testified that a few Australian subscriber/subscription identity/identification module cards were discovered from the blast site in Sainthamaruthu.
Following the release of Lukman Thalib and his son without any charge after their five-month detention in Qatar, Prof. Lukman Thalib has advised legal action against the Government of Sri Lanka for defaming him with false allegations.
Role of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe
While the role of foreign influence requires significantly more evidence for which investigations are still ongoing, the PCoI makes mention of several serious shortcomings on the part of politicians and the law enforcement authorities. In my previous article, the lapses of the law enforcement authorities were discussed, but their lapses were not without contribution from the political forces in the Government at the time.
The PCoI notes that the topic of Islamic extremism in Kattankudy had become a topic of contention since 2010, and that by 2016, the matter had become far too serious to ignore. The speech of then MP Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe in Parliament in 2016 on the migration of Muslims to join the IS was an eye-opener, but he was effectively neutralised and the topic was kept under wraps. The PCoI notes that national security had taken a backseat in view of the government policy of maintaining national harmony at the time. Therefore, even as the Minister of Defence and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, then President Sirisena had only conducted National Security Council (NSC) meetings irregularly.
SDIG Jayawardena also notes that Sirisena and then Premier Wickremesinghe always chose to reject the notion of Islamic extremism in Sri Lanka whenever it was taken up at the NSC meetings. SDIG Jayawardena had also personally notified Sirisena of Zahran’s Facebook threats in the aftermath of the Gintota riots. Sirisena had also admitted in his testimony that Jayawardena had kept the NSC informed of the threat of Zahran since 2016. Therefore, the PCoI finds that Sirisena was aware of the threat, but always advised the security forces not to take the matter seriously.
The PCoI also notes that on 16 April 2019, Sirisena had travelled to India and proceeded to Singapore without making any appointment for the Acting Minister of Defence. At the time, Sirisena was aware of the threat at the time of his departure, the PCoI finds.
Wickremesinghe was also fearful that the unity of the party may collapse if Muslim MPs chose to oppose him. Therefore, he always played down any presentation by the intelligence personnel on the rise and threat of Islamic extremism in the country. The PCoI had also noted that Sagala Ratnayaka, who was the Minister of Law and Order until 26 October 2018, had briefed Wickremesinghe of the threat of Islamic extremism.
The PcoI finds that the omissions of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe transcended that of civil negligence and imposes criminal liability upon them.
Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera
The PCoI has addressed the part played by Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera in no small measure. The PCoI recommends the proscription of his group, the BBS, and calls for the Attorney General to decide on whether to arrest him under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act for his inflammatory speeches in Aluthgama and Maharagama. The forceful violence he had unleashed upon the Muslims had been a major contributory factor that inspired many Muslim youths to be radicalised. The PCoI also names many other groups such as the Sihala/Sinhala Ravaya, the Mahason Balakaya, the Sinhala Jathika Sanvidanaya, the Ravana Balaya, and the Shiv Sena Movement, against whom the PCoI recommends the imposing of liabilities. However, the actions of Gnanasara Thera have been recognised as criminal in nature.
Rishad Bathiudeen
Despite all the allegations hurled at him, the PCoI has not found many of them to be true. The PCoI report only finds him accountable for only two charges, both of which do not appear to be major and neither of which appear to be conclusive.
One of the charges is in respect of his call to the Army Commander of the time, General Mahesh Senanayake. The evidence before the PCoI including the testimonies of the parties had revealed that he had contacted the Army Commander three times, all of which were in respect of one individual, Ihsan Meinudeen. Ihsan’s father is a class-one Sri Lanka Administrative Service officer in the state sector, and is personally known to Bathiudeen. The investigations reveal that the Army Commander had confirmed in his third call that Ihsan was in their custody and that there was no more to add to it. However, the PCoI seeks further investigation on the matter.
The second allegation is in respect of the sale of scrap metal from government corporations to Colossus (Pvt.) Ltd., which is a company owned by one of the bombers, Inshaf Ibrahim. The Industrial Development Board (IDB) was involved in the collection and sale of scrap metal, for which the criteria is given in the guidelines, none of which were found to be violated. However, the PCoI recommends further investigation on whether bribery was involved.
A further matter was also investigated by the PcoI in respect of a call made by Inshaf, to the brother of Rishad Bathiudeen, concerning a matter related to the IDB. While the PcoI has found nothing significant in their investigation, they have recommended further investigation concerning any bribery involved in the matter.
M.L.A.M. Hizbullah
The PCoI alleges that Hizbullah had worked closely with the Wahhabis and had contributed towards the Arabisation of Kattankudy. He was associated with Haroon Moulavi who had been invested in the activities of Zahran. Haroon Moulavi was also an organiser of a protest in 2012 where flags of the IS were carried. The PCoI finds Hizbullah to have contributed towards the rise of extremism in Kattankudy.
Other names
The PCoI also names Razik Rafaideen alias Abdul Razik, the Secretary of the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath (SLTJ), for his various connections to Zahran’s group and for his extremist preaching.
Mohamed Farook Mohamed Shibly is another politician who is alleged to have maintained direct links with Zahran and his group. He is said to have used his political influence to maintain the impunity of Zahran for many years. He is also said to have visited Zahran’s brother Rilwan in hospital with Rauff Hakeem after he was stabbed during a clash in 2017.
Dr. Muhamad Zufyan Muhamad Zafras is said to have helped admit Zahran’s brother Rilwan to the National Hospital in Colombo for the injuries he sustained after a bomb he was experimenting with accidentally went off. Although other doctors and nurses had conveyed their suspicions regarding the nature of the injuries sustained, the matter had not been referred to the Police.
Notable names missed out
Although Azath Salley had revealed in a press conference in 2017 that Zahran was on the loose and was causing mayhem in the East, no reference to this was made anywhere in the report. In that particular press briefing, he had also mentioned that the Chief Minister of the time was protecting him. At the time, the Chief Minister was Hafeez Nazeer of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), which had a known political association with Zahran and the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). It is surprising that the PCoI had omitted these details from the report, as they appear to be significant matters to be investigated.
Another matter notably left out is the allegation that Zahran was recruited under the payroll of the Defence Ministry in 2014. The notable non-reference to the allegation adds to the notion that the commission report is incomplete.
Conclusion
Although the report appears to have put in tremendous amounts of hard work, it does not appear to have concluded investigations. Let us hope that the matters remaining to be investigated will connect the missing dots and provide to us a fuller picture of those who aided and abetted in the heinous crimes that transpired on 21 April 2019.
(The author is a legal researcher. He can be contacted via faizer@live.com)