The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and
Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) investigations into Easter Day blasts
have revealed the following details: On 21 April 2019, St. Anthony’s
Shrine Kochchikade, St. Sebastian’s Church Negombo, Zion Church Batticaloa,
Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo-2, the Kingsbury in
Colombo Fort were targeted in a series of co-ordinated terrorist suicide
bombings. Later that day, there were smaller explosions at a housing complex in
Dematagoda and Tropical Inn, a guest house in Colombo suburb of Dehiwala. In
all 258 people were killed, including at least 46 foreign nationals and three
police officers, and at least 500 were injured in these attacks.
As Amarnath Amarasingam in his detailed
analysis titled ‘Understanding the Easter Attacks in Sri Lanka’ published in
the May-June 2019 issue of CTC Sentinel,
said “The Islamic State-claimed attack stunned terrorism analysts because there
had been no known history of jihadi violence in the country. Several of the
attackers were well educated, and two were the scions of a very wealthy family,
providing the cell with advantages in its plotting. There were indications,
however, from as early as January 2017 that individuals associated with the
National Tawheed Jamaat [NTJ] were becoming increasingly supportive of the
Islamic State[IS ] and mobilizing to violence that was missed by local law
enforcement. The Sri Lanka attacks may be early evidence that the Islamic State
is taking an important and renewed interest in South Asia, following losses in
Syria and Iraq.”
Though over a month has passed after the attacks, Sri Lanka has not fully recovered from its aftershock. People have been stunned after they learnt that the government had failed to act upon detailed information about the impending terrorist attacks received from Indian intelligence 12 days in advance.
The NTJ attack has exposed lots of
grey areas in the leadership at both the national level and administrative
level. The President chaired a meeting of the National Security Council and
declared a state of emergency after two days of the attack. The government
banned the NTJ and Jamathe-i-Milathu (JeM) a social media based radical outfit
whose members were also involved in the attack. About 200 foreign Muslim
clerics have been expelled and new regulations to bring madrasas under
government control are underway.
President Sirisena continues to
disown any prior knowledge of the advance intelligence received on the attack,
rather than talking about the measures he has taken to prevent such attacks.
The President and the PM have been giving contradictory perspectives on the
attack. President
Sirisena told Parliament “Our intelligence services are doing a good job — 99
per cent of those responsible have been arrested and within the next three days
the rest of them will be taken in.”
However, the PM declared on the same day,
“As I have mentioned on several occasions the threat is not over as yet. This
is because we are subjected to global terrorism. Though persons involved
have been arrested in Sri Lanka, there are other ways these terrorists can
intervene in Sri Lanka.”
On the other hand, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka
told the Parliament that it would take a minimum of two years to eradicate the
new terrorist organization. Considering the IS connection somewhere down the
line which had been inspiring Thawheed radicalism, the FM’s assessment is
probably more correct. So Sri Lanka is probably in for a long haul.
Five weeks after
the attack , the President summoned a monthly meeting to review the progress of
the tasks implemented to strengthen national security, as well as to welcome
ideas and suggestions from the participants.
PM Wickremesinghe, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, Opposition leader Mahinda
Rajapaksa were among those who attended the meeting. The meeting was attended by relgious leaders,
governors of provinces, leaders of political parties, university vice
chancellors, professors, chief of defence staff, defence secretary and
commanders of tri forces. Apparently, the unwieldy meeting was a more of a PR
exercise to assuage public outrage at the tardiness with which the government
was acting.
Clearly, the
President Sirisena-PM Wickremesinghe standoff that started in October 2018 when
the President made an abortive bid to sack the PM seems to haunt the government functioning. Confusion also seems to prevail on a number of
procedural issues ranging from the absence of counter terrorism law,
proscription of extremist organizations and ministerial responsibilities.
It took five weeks
for the parliamentary select committee (PSC) to start a probe into the handling
of the terrorist attack. Chief of National Intelligence (CNI) DIG Sisira
Mendis informed the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), that after he received
information about the attack from Nilantha
Jayawardena, Director, State Intelligence Service (SIS), he briefed the Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando the next
the next day. The Defence Secretary advised him to inform the IG Police to act
upon the information. It is evident everyone in the bureaucratic chain had
treated the information without the urgency it deserved.
The newly appointed Defence
Secretary General Shantha Kottegoda told the PSC that the suicide bombings
could have been averted had the extremist organizations been proscribed on the
basis of intelligence reports received in 2014 indicating the casual approach
to handling extremist threat.
Probably, there exists no
standard operative procedure for handling intelligence or it is not being
followed. This is surprising considering the country had successfully defeated
powerful LTTE insurgents a decade ago. On
the otherhand, it is not surprising if we consider the number of cases of
misuse of intelligence and police resources to serve personal and political
ends now pending in various stages of prosecution.
Even in handling anti-Muslim
backlash there seems to an element of confusion. A week after the terrorist
attack, mobs brought from outside attacked Muslim owned shops and houses in three towns
in Northwestern province, while police watched on helplessly. Leaders from all
religious groups have appealed for peace and calm in its aftermath. Police have
rounded up around 30 people for rioting. Politicians continue to bay for
removal of All Ceylon Muslim Congress leader and Commerce minister Bathiudeen
for alleged links to NTJ.
Under these circumstances, it was surprising to see
President Sirisena pardoning the well known Muslim baiter Gnanasara Thera,
leader of the Buddhist fringe group Bodhu Bala Sena, who was serving a six year
sentence for contempt of court. The timing of his pardon was all wrong from the
internal security point of view; but perhaps there was a political angle to it.
Col R Hariharan, a retired MI officer, served as the head
of Intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 90.
He is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies, South Asia Analysis
Group and the International Law and Strategic Analysis Institute, Chennai.
E-mail: haridirect@gmail.com Blog: http://col.hariharan.info
