Sri Lanka Stands United

• The Muslim community should disown terrorism publicly and conduct a two to  three-hour vigil for the people who have died

• We need to be extremely watchful of those waiting in the wings to exploit the tense situations that the country is going through

• Nothing has been done to insult Islam by the Christian community though 359 persons have died and though it has been proved that Islamic extremists were responsible

In the aftermath of multiple bomb attacks on Easter Sunday for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility, Daily Mirror, spoke to several parties on strengthening the harmony among the different ethnic and religious groups.   

26 April 2019

The explosions on Sunday have claimed 359 lives so far and injured many more leaving a country mourning, devastated and in fear of further explosions.   

The people the Daily Mirror, spoke to said that the recent string of massive violence should not be reflective of the Muslim community as it was perpetrated by a small group of fanatics. They spoke of ways of strengthening harmony amongst the communities and praised the forbearance and tolerance of the Christian community.   

“We have asked mosques to collect funds to rebuild churches and assist those affected.”  

N.M. Ameen - Muslim Council of Sri Lanka 

President of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, N.M.Ameen said that the Muslim community vehemently condemns the explosions. “Islam does not endorse violence. We have asked mosques to collect funds to rebuild churches and assist those affected. We will have a special prayer during Friday jummah prayers for the dead and others who were affected. 

This is very unfortunate. We have not had a quarrel with Christians and we have lived closely with the Sinhalese, Tamil and Christians. We must rebuild these relationships. Each person should work towards it. We ask politicians to come together,” he said.   

 “These activities are carried out by a small group of people. They are only Muslims by name. We informed the defence secretary before about the National Thawhid Jamaath organization. But this was not taken up by the authorities.We express our deepest sympathy to our Christian brothers,” he added.

“The perpetrators should be punished.”   

Dr. D.M. Farook - President of All Ceylon Union of Muslim Youth League Front  

 President of the All Ceylon Union of Muslim Youth League Front, Dr.D.M.Farook, said that Islam does not allow violence. “The perpetrators should be punished. Otherwise, it will go on,” he said.

"The well- organized, unbelievably synchronized suicidal terrorist assaults targeting innocent people at prayers, stand condemned as the most cowardly acts of despicable terror"

“All Extremist Islamist groups should be banned right away.”

Shreen Abdul Saroor  - Women’s Action Network     

Co-founder of Women’s Action Network, Shreen Abdul Saroor said that all extremist Islamist groups should be banned right away. “Islam does not teach extremism. If anyone teaches Islam in an extreme manner which disconnects us from the other communities, that should be banned. We live in a multi-ethnic community. Before calling others extremists, we need to look at our own selves from what we were twenty years ago,” she said.   
Ms. Saroor who was in Negombo at the time she was speaking to the  said that Muslims in Negombo were unable to pay respect at the funerals in their neighbourhood because of a fear of retaliation. “But reaching out to other communities is important. Being inside is not going to help the Muslim community. I know there is a lot of fear mongering but everyone’s life is valuable and lots of valuable lives have been lost.

The Muslim community should disown terrorism publicly and conduct a two to  three-hour vigil for the people who have died. Everybody is at home comfortably saying that this is not Islamic and this is not our people. We have to publicly call them terrorists. We have to tell people that there is no place for terrorism in Islam. We should close our shops for two to three weeks and mourn for the dead,” she said.   

“Muslims of Sri Lanka have nothing to do with those terrorists.”

M. M. Zuhair- PC     

In a statement, President’s Counsel M.M.Zuhair said: “The well- organized, unbelievably synchronized suicidal terrorist assaults targeting innocent people at prayers, stand condemned as the most cowardly acts of despicable terror. 

That they dared to carry through the pre-planned attacks despite knowing that their plans had leaked with substantial accuracy, ten days earlier clearly establishes one fact. They had made-up their sick minds to kill themselves in their lunatic mission to murder the innocents.”  He also said that suicide is prohibited in Islam, no matter the cause. “They have earned a permanent place in hell according to Islam,” he added. 

“By and large the Muslims of Sri Lanka had successfully harmonized themselves with all other ethnic and religious communities over the centuries. What then led a few of its youths to launch on Easter Sunday deadly suicide missions to kill innocent tourists and people at prayers?... The state investigators must diligently investigate to get at the truth and the genuine extent to which this deadly cancer may have spread,” he said adding that people must show the maximum cooperation without any hesitation to detect the remaining violence-prone extremists. 

"Relationships among communities can be protected by the security forces and the government stating very clearly at all times that no community should be targeted and that this was done by a small group of fanatics and extremists"

“Investigators will no doubt ensure that vested interests, both internal and external are not allowed to mislead them from apprehending innocent friends and family members of violent extremists. Muslims must devise plans to rehabilitate persons subject to extremism and persons who misinterpret the religion for collateral purposes,” he said.   

“Muslims appear to live in fear of a backlash. They could also face harassments at the hands of mischief makers. Every such incident should be reported to the Police. They must also face the situation with patience and grace.   
These suicide bombers have also broken through the hearts and minds of millions of Muslims in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. The time has come for us all to be vigilant of those who mislead us. We need to be extremely watchful of those waiting in the wings to exploit the tense situations that the country is going through. We have a clear message to the country. Muslims of Sri Lanka have nothing to do with those terrorists with Muslim names!” he said.   

“Need to keep reaffirming the values of dignity, equality, tolerance and freedom.”

Ermiza Tegal - MPLRAG   

Attorney-at-Law Ermiza Tegal of the Muslim Personal Law Reforms Action Group (MPLRAG) said: “It is a time for grieving and picking up the pieces. It is time to focus on caring and coping. While it is the duty of the authorities to take swift action against these horrific crimes, it falls on the shoulders of all the peace-loving communities of Sri Lanka to unite in caring, unite against hate and to set an example of responding with love as many already have. 

"By and large the Muslims of Sri Lanka had successfully harmonized themselves with all other ethnic and religious communities over the centuries. What then led a few of its youths to launch on Easter Sunday deadly suicide missions to kill innocent tourists and people at prayers?... The state investigators must diligently investigate to get at the truth and the genuine extent to which this deadly cancer may have spread"

We, including our leaders, need to keep reaffirming the values of dignity, equality, tolerance and freedom as it is those very values that have been attacked and rendered fragile.”   

Meanwhile, in a statement, MPLRAG said that Sri Lanka must emerge stronger as a more compassionate and just nation to defeat the efforts of terrorists. “The terror inflicted on Sri Lankans was meant to cause suffering, instil fear and panic, and tear our communities apart. We cannot give in to this. 

We understand that anger is a normal reaction to pain and suffering. We must resist all efforts meant to cause distrust, disharmony, and division. We must not allow any more people to suffer any form of injustice or indignity,” the statement read.   

The statement further added that no one religious, ethnic, or linguistic group can or should be held responsible for the actions of a few individuals whose ideologies are too extreme to comprehend.   

“Politicians should not rouse racism so as to take political advantage to increase their voter base.”

Ven. Dambara Amila Thera - Nalanda University College   

Ven. Dambara Amila Thera of the Nalanda University College praised the forbearance of the people and said: “Few days has passed since the explosions. But no Muslim person, no mosque has been attacked. 
Nothing has been done to insult Islam by the Christian community though 359 persons have died and though it has been proved that Islamic extremists were responsible,” he said expressing his gratitude towards the forbearance people have shown.

 
He added that politicians should not rouse racism so as to take political advantage to increase their voter base. “In any case, people are intelligent now and they understand what caused the series of unfortunate incidents,” he said.   

"The terror inflicted on Sri Lankans was meant to cause suffering, instil fear and panic, and tear our communities apart. We cannot give in to this"

“Not reflective of the position of anyone in the community.”  

Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu - Centre for Policy Alternatives 

Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu said: “The investigations should be conducted swiftly without any fear or favour. The lapses in the security establishment are absolutely appalling.”   

“The relationships among communities can be protected by the security forces and the government stating very clearly at all times that no community should be targeted and that this was done by a small group of fanatics and extremists, and that is not reflective of the position of anyone in the community,” he said.   

Dealing With The Despair & Despondency Facing Sri Lanka Today?

By Emil van der Poorten –APRIL 28, 2019

Emil van der Poorten

One can but hope that when the reader reaches the end of this piece it will not leave them wringing their hands in helplessness but provide at least a modicum of hope for the future of a land which promised so much when we first became independent in 1948.

The church-bombings and subsequent security force responses have been widely enough covered to make any lengthy reference to them redundant. However, the simple question that all those in authority have to answer to the people of this country is, “Why after the fact, when there is ample evidence that the information about what was going on in a country where no one can keep a secret was pretty much in the public domain? Were all those who bore the responsibility for safeguarding our security too busy stuffing their pockets – and I don’t seek to draw any political separation lines in that regard – to deal with a nation’s security? Or was it the firm establishment of a culture of indifference to the public good that was to blame? Either explanation is totally and absolutely unacceptable.

A knee-jerk response to the current situation that is on the horizon is the elevation of one who makes no pretence to democratic practice, promising only a removal of the “menace of violence and mayhem and the restoration of order,” whatever that ‘order’ ultimately proves to be, whether or not they include white-van disappearances, executions in broad daylight in high security zones in sight of check points, mass graves with 300+ bodies in the Central Province and other atrocities too numerous to mention.

The preceding scenario is the single most dangerous response from a nation, understandably, desperate for a means of dealing with what was seen to be a clear and imminent danger that descended upon it.

While it might seem like an attempt to drain the swamp when one is up to one’s (….) in alligators, it is essential that we do not fall into the trap of not seeing the wood for the trees, if I might mix my metaphors. To do so would only bring upon ourselves an even worse fate than the one that faces us right now, if that is possible.

Analyzing what confronts us in the way of politicians on the current scene would constitute an appropriate start.

There are people in the current government who do appear to have unsullied personal reputations, many of them with the intelligence to deliver to this nation a modicum of decent and principled governance. They need to be recognized by every possible means and that is not an impossible task given the number of people with widely accepted credentials who write on a regular basis for publication. Promote these individuals, irrespective of formal political affiliation because the traditional lines of “left” and “right” in the matter of political philosophy don’t appear to exist any longer in any event.

Organize peaceful public demonstrations in support of amity among all groups not espousing racial or religious superiority. Seek and celebrate commonalities among all sectors of the larger Sri Lankan community, something that will take a degree of organizational skill but will not fail for lack of support because, without the shadow of a doubt, the vast majority of Sri Lankans support the philosophy of communal and religious amity.

While the people of conscience and concern are there, what it is going to take is a dedicated effort to harness their energies in the single most important task that has ever faced this nation.  I do not say this lightly because the ugly monster of racial/communal/religious superiority has never raised its head so high in our history since independence. I daresay, not even at the height of the JR Jayewardene-generated anti- Tamil pogrom of the eighties or the equally vicious, Prabhakaran-driven response that followed. 

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Sri Lanka Authorities Were Warned, in Detail, 12 Days Before Attack

Security personnel in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Saturday. The country has been in a state of emergency since the Easter Sunday bombings.CreditCreditAdam Dean for The New York Times

By Jeffrey Gettleman and Dharisha Bastians-April 29, 2019

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — More evidence emerged Monday that the Sri Lankan government had ignored detailed warnings about an imminent terrorist attack, days before suicide bombers killed more than 250 people at crowded churches and hotels.

In a memo dated April 9 and labeled “Top Secret, (Eyes Only),” the chief of national intelligence warned the country’s police chief that “Sri Lanka based Zahran Hashmi of National Thowheeth Jama’ath and his associates are planning to carry out a suicide terrorist attack in Sri Lanka shortly.” The bombings came 12 days later.

The memo, whose authenticity was confirmed by two high-ranking government officials, is the earliest one revealed so far to have so obviously conveyed a sense of urgency. A security memo two days later warned of “a possible suicide attack” by the radical Islamist group but did not say when it was expected.

Day by day, the paper trail of detailed warnings gets longer, casting more doubts on President Maithripala Sirisena’s claims that he did not know the attack was coming.

 

Several Sri Lankan officials said it would have gone against standard practice for the national intelligence chief to have shared such highly classified information with police officials, without first sharing it with the president.

No extra police officers were deployed to stop the attacks, and Roman Catholic leaders, anguished over the devastation, have said they would have canceled Easter Mass had they known about the warnings.

The April 9 memo said the terrorist group was “planning to target some important churches” and the Indian High Commission in Colombo, the capital, and “may adopt any of the following modes of attack: suicide attack, weapon attack, knife attack, truck attack.”

The memo closes: “It is important to alert the law enforcement agencies to be vigilant concerning the information.”

A woman wearing a niqab in Kattankudy, Sri Lanka, last week. On Monday, the president banned “all forms of clothing that cover a person’s face and prevents them from being identified.”CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times

 

On Monday, Mr. Sirisena banned “all forms of clothing that cover a person’s face and prevents them from being identified,” an order seen as being directed at the niqabs and burqas that some Muslim women wear in public. The president cited the limited state of emergency that he imposed last week, giving the government sweeping powers to arrest, search and seize.

 

Muslim leaders in Sri Lanka had already asked women not to cover their faces in the aftermath of the bombings, and some of them described the ban, however temporary, as needlessly provocative. Muslims make up about 10 percent of the country’s population, and facial coverings are not common.

A few other countries, including France, prohibit wearing any garment in public that prevents facial identification.

Sri Lanka is deep in mourning, and the bitterness toward the government is only growing. Paralyzed by months of political bickering and impasse, Sri Lanka’s elected leaders failed to take action after repeated warnings that suicide attacks were being planned.

Around 9 a.m. on Easter Sunday, seven bombers detonated backpacks loaded with explosives within minutes of one another at three high-end hotels and three churches across the island, leaving more than 250 people dead. In the days since, other terrorism suspects have set off several more explosives and engaged in a lengthy shootout with the police and military, claiming more lives.

For weeks, Indian intelligence agents had been issuing warnings. The Indians had been closely tracking the suspected ringleader, Zaharan Hashim, also known as Zahran Hashmi, and warned Sri Lankan intelligence services several times, including on the morning of the attack. The April 9 memo included the names and addresses of suspected members of the terrorist group.

 

Sri Lanka is hardly getting back to normal, but many people returned to work on Monday. On the main roads, traffic was thicker, and some stores opened for the first time in days. For most of the country, a nighttime curfew has been lifted.

 

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks. In a video released by the group’s media wing, Mr. Zaharan, who was one of the suicide bombers, swore allegiance to the Islamic State.

Since the bombings, anti-Muslim feeling has been rising across Sri Lanka. In a few areas, Muslims and Muslim-owned businesses have been attacked. Security forces and religious leaders have been trying hard to tamp down tensions.

Was The Sri Lankan Law Adequate For Dealing With The Easter Bombers Before They Attacked?

Photo by Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images via ABCNewsGo

ASANGA WELIKALA- 04/28/2019

The Prime Minister has gone on record with the international media saying that, even though Sri Lankan authorities were aware of Sri Lankan jihadists who had returned from Syria who might be engaged in questionable activities, the country’s laws prevented action being taken. This is not true, and only serves to evade accountability, because there are a number of existing laws that could have been used to arrest and investigate these persons. The most obvious is the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1979 (the PTA), which authorises the arrest and/or detention of persons suspected of the kind of terrorism-related activities that those who had joined Islamic State (IS) and returned to Sri Lanka would clearly be covered by.

There is also the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act 2007 which makes it a criminal offence to incite religious hatred and to propagate war. This Act also makes it a criminal offence to attempt, aid, abet, or threaten to commit acts of inciting religious hatred or propagating war. There is the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings Act 1999 which again covers attempts to commit, or aiding and abetting, terrorist bombings. There are also various provisions in the Penal Code in relation to murder, hurt, use of criminal force, and criminal conspiracy, as well as attempting to commit any of these offences, that could have been used. Finally, there are UN sanctions against IS which have been given effect by domestic statutory instruments under the United Nations Act 1968. These are regulations made under the United Nations Act 1968 to give effect to Sri Lanka’s international obligations with regard to the UN anti-terrorism sanctions regime. They were first made in 2012 and subsequently amended in 2016 to specifically include Islamic State (or Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, or Da’esh). The regulations set out the domestic machinery through which UN sanctions against these terror groups can be upheld.

Section 27 of the PTA could easily have been used to proscribe the National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ) or any other such organisation. This provision gives the Minister the power make regulations for the purpose of carrying out or giving effect to the principles and provisions of the PTA. A proscription order or regulation under Section 27 must be published in the Gazette and comes into operation on a date prescribed by the relevant Minister. As soon as convenient, such regulations must be brought before Parliament for approval, and they are deemed rescinded if parliamentary approval has not been given. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was first proscribed in the wake of the bombing of the Temple of the Tooth in 1998 by emergency regulations. In 2001, when the government lost its majority in Parliament and the state of emergency lapsed, so did the ban on the LTTE. The President then used Section 27 of the PTA to reintroduce the proscription. Even after the state of emergency was terminated after the war in 2011, PTA regulations were made to continue to the proscription of the LTTE and the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), which are still in force. So even without a state of emergency, the PTA provides a wide proscribing power to the government in relation to organisations associated with terrorism.

It can therefore be seen that existing laws were certainly sufficient to detain, investigate, and convict, and even to proscribe, the individuals and groups currently being identified with the Easter Sunday attacks. Had the evidence that had been emerging about these activities been taken seriously and acted upon, then we could have made meaningful progress in preventing the attacks. If it had proved necessary, laws could also have been swiftly amended to deal with any gaps.

However, to the extent that there is an international dimension to these attacks, it is fair to say that Sri Lankan laws needed to be updated to take account of the new globalised context of terrorism. One of the purposes of the Counter Terrorism Bill currently being considered by a parliamentary oversight committee was to modernise our anti-terrorism powers framework in the context of global terrorism. It is important to stress that several critical defects in the Bill need to be corrected so that there are effective and adequate safeguards against the abuse of anti-terrorism powers. However, the government has been both opaque in the process of drafting and dilatory in enacting this legislation.  We are familiar with the criticism about the tardiness and inefficiency of governments when it comes to areas like economic development and even constitutional reform, where a globalised world constantly outpaces the Sri Lankan way of doing things. The events of Easter Sunday have tragically demonstrated the consequences of this lethargy when it comes to securing our society against internationalised terrorism.

While we can no longer afford the luxury of isolated indolence, the various instances of incompetence and dysfunction that allowed the attacks to happen do not justify the arrogation of excessive powers by the government after the fact. More than arguably, the emergency regulations promulgated last week in the aftermath of the attacks are overbroad and prone to abuse, and potentially transgress the outer limits of the restrictions on fundamental rights permitted by our Constitution. The same danger applies to kneejerk responses such as the announcement by the President that he has ordered the preparation of new counterterrorism legislation. Not only does the President not have any moral authority left to direct the country’s response to the Easter Sunday tragedy given his palpable responsibility for the errors and omissions that led to it, but he is an intentional violator of the Constitution and so demonstrably out of his depth in the high office he holds, that it would be ridiculous to entrust him with such a task. In combatting the clear and present danger of international terrorism, the importance of striking the proper balance between security and freedom cannot be overstated. For this, all counterterrorism measures going forward must conform to the minimum standards established by both the Constitution and international law.

FROM 9/11 TO SRI LANKA: THE TERRORISTS’ DEADLY MESSAGE WE HAVE FAILED TO GRASP

Image; A vigil in Isamabad to pay tribute to the Sri Lankan blast victims. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images.

Are there lessons we can learn from last week’s atrocities in Sri Lanka?

29/04/2019

The funerals are over, the investigation continues and the blame game begins and media attention shifts away. This time the victims were Catholic worshippers and patrons of luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. A month ago they were Muslim worshippers in New Zealand, shot by a white supremacist as they prayed.

It is almost two decades since attacks launched by al-Qaida on New York, the Pentagon and Washington announced a new era of mass-casualty terrorism. Such violence has long been with us all, of course. Terrorism in its modern form can trace its roots back to the 19th century. The 1970s saw hundreds of terrorist bombings, shootings and hijackings in the US. The 1990s were bloody, too.

But the era that began with the 2001 attacks brought something else. The rapidity with which we now learn of violence thousands of miles away, the graphic images and testimony to which we are exposed, or seek out, and the unprecedented scale of the violence combine to give an old threat a new immediacy. Terrorism is part of all our lives – as terrorists want it to be. We know much more about extremist violence than we have ever done. So what can we learn from this latest tragedy?

Our view of terrorism is too restricted

Every time there is a new attack, there is surprise. One explanation is that we suffer from a form of willed amnesia about violent extremism. Perhaps because terrorism is so rarely experienced personally it often seems that the level of fear we feel is determined by little more than the last thing that we read or saw that involved terrorists. So, for many people, the background to the Sri Lanka bombings was the expulsion of Islamic State from its last redoubts in Syria last month. Thus the sense that this was somehow unexpected.

The loss of its last territories was a major defeat for Isis. It will find it much more difficult to organise terrorist attacks in its heartland and further afield without the extensive infrastructure, lucrative opportunities for taxation and looting, and a relatively secure enclave where volunteers could be trained and operations planned. Its failures are now blatant. The international boundaries it boasted of smashing forever remain. Previous caliphates spanned centuries. This one lasted less than five years. But though the group’s ideology and attraction have been undermined, it has not disappeared.

No one with any knowledge of how extremist ideologies evolve would have expected that its complex mix of conspiratorial politics, radical theology, sectarianism and apocalyptic prediction would have lost all power to convince overnight. The bombings in Sri Lanka are bloody evidence of this.

We don’t know when Isis became involved in the attack, but it is very likely that it was instrumental in turning a ramshackle group focused solely on defacing or destroying Buddhist statues in January into one capable of launching last week’s bombings. This means an intervention within the past few months, when Isis’s final territorial defeat was well under way. A deeper understanding of how the group works, grounded in a longer-term perspective, would have prevented false hopes that the hydra was slain.

A closed circuit television image shows a suspected bomber framed in a doorway at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The same is true of any surprise that such an attack should occur in South Asia. Once, events there were a major preoccupation of western decision-makers. Since the death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, it has disappeared into a news and policy black hole. The multiple militant groups may no longer pose an obvious threat to the west, but it is said 7,664 people were killed in terrorist attacks in the region in 2017. If we had paid more attention in recent years, last Sunday’s atrocities would have been less of a shock.

We still don’t understand radicalism

We know there is no “terrorist” gene. The number of secular attackers over the decades, and the wave of rightwing violence based on “race” or ethnic identity, not faith, suggests that religion is an insufficient answer. Many religious attackers are not observant at the beginning of the radicalisation process. Some aren’t at the end either. There are examples of European extremists who had used drugs, liked nightclubs and had girlfriends before recruitment by Isis who never fully abandoned their previous ways.
The brutally simple response is that there is no single answer.Individuals are drawn into terrorism in the same way they are drawn into all sorts of other extreme ways of behaving. Many routes can lead to the same result. Some of the attackers in Sri Lanka were wealthy and educated. This has surprised some. There is no link between poverty and extremist actions or thinking. Nor is education a predictor. There are extremists with doctorates, and others who are barely literate.
There is also much variation globally. Attackers in Europe have different profiles from those in the Middle East or in the US.
One general rule is that the process of radicalisation is a progressive one, always gradual, though it can be rapid. It usually involves a charismatic leader, a simple idea that resolves a profound personal crisis, a binary narrative that answers a particular grievance, a group of friends, relatives or other associates who reinforce each other’s behaviour creating a feedback loop of greater separation from the rest of a community, society and nation. Few set out to be a suicide bomber. A recent study of Saudi recruits to Isis found that only one in 10 signed up for martyrdom.

The faithful of St Sebastian’s will worship in a tent outside the church on Sunday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Crucially, someone vulnerable to radicalisation at one moment in their life may be much less so just months later. A key element in the explanations of former terrorists for their own actions – as well as in accounts given by Nazi mass killers and others – is that their acts are necessary to head off a catastrophic outcome for their community, that they are an obligation for any rational individual. Combine this with the total dehumanisation of the victims – another product of groupthink, separation and propaganda – and you are already a long way to mass murder, whether in a death camp, through an artificial famine, by a mob armed with knives and axes, or a multiple suicide bombing.

All politics is local, and so is all (successful) extremism

For more than 20 years, our vision of Islamic extremist atrocities has been distorted by the events of 9/11, which involved a team of attackers from the Middle East striking in the US. But terrorists rarely come from overseas to attack, as they did then. The vast majority launch their operations close to where they live, often only a short journey in a car, train, rickshaw or by foot. In Afghanistan, internal intelligence assessments have shown that most attacks were made by people living less than a mile from their target.

The Sri Lanka bombings show this. We know the identities of four bombers. The leader of the network was from a village three hours’ drive from Colombo, the capital, where all but one attack occurred. Two brothers lived in an upmarket neighbourhood of the city, and may well have been familiar with the luxury hotels they bombed. The fourth had studied in Britain and Australia, but lived in the capital too.

Even when bombers succeed in reaching jihadist groups to get training, their success often depends on the advantages that come with attacking targets on their home turf. As Scott Atran, an anthropologist and expert in extremism, noted in the Guardian last week, all but one attack by Isis in Europe in 2014 failed owing to a lack of local contacts. When, a year later, Isis sent operatives into Europe who could engage an extensive network of overlapping and pre-existing social ties among families, friends, workmates and petty criminal bands clustered in particular neighbourhoods, the result was carnage.

A funeral in Colombo last week. Due to the devastating force of the blasts on their victims, the final death toll – believed to be in excess of 253 – has yet to be announced. Photograph: Atul Loke/Getty Images

The Muslim community in Sri Lanka has long been marginalised politically, and often economically too. In recent years there has been a sharp rise in sectarian tensions, mainly a result of the emergence of militant Buddhist groups.

Then there is the legacy of 26 years of a brutal civil war. Though this was fought out on ethnic, not religious, lines, it nonetheless left a legacy of violence and trauma which should not be underestimated. The island nation was fertile ground for Isis. Its leaders know that a global ideology only becomes truly dangerous when it is adopted by local actors. We should remember that too.

Counter-terrorism is local too

To say that terrorist attacks depend on security failings is a truism. But the shortcomings that allowed the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka appear egregious. Veteran insurgents returning from Syria were not watched, let alone detained or questioned. Suspects linked to a makeshift training camp raided in January were not investigated, despite the seizure of detonators and explosives. At least one of the bombers was arrested, then released. Police were told informally about the suspects by Indian counterparts as early as December. Three formal warnings in April were not passed on to key decision-makers.

There are reasons for these shortcomings. The Sri Lankan state is deeply dysfunctional and its security establishment riven by faction and feuds. The prime minister and the president are barely speaking. There were even rows over who would join national security committee meetings in the hours after the bombings. The same divisions run through the police, the military and the intelligence services.

Intelligence agencies around the world, like armies, reflect the strengths and weaknesses in any given society or state. A rotten political system will have rotten security services. If most terrorism is a local phenomenon that is networked into a bigger global system, so is counter-terrorism.

Isis knows this. Such organisations are dynamic, mobile and innovative. The extremists are opportunists, exploiting vulnerabilities, then moving elsewhere to find others.

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 Bangladeshis offer funeral prayers for Awami League leader Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim’s grandson Zayan Chowdhury, who was killed in one of Easter Sunday blasts. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Violent Islamic extremism will fail, so violent Islamic extremism will continue

The fundamental problem for Islamic militant groups is that every time they have tried to seize and hold land – their ultimate aim, for without the caliphate the new society they dream of cannot be created – their efforts have ended in failure.

Many jihadi strategists recommend spectacular attacks to frighten enemies, mobilise supporters and polarise those in between. This will weaken state structures sufficiently for them to be destroyed, allowing a chaotic and bloody vacuum that can be exploited to build a new Islamic entity.

The challenge for the militants is that this can only succeed in places where the state is already weak – Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion, Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Sahel – the transition zone between the Sahara in the north and the African savannahs in the south – today. Anywhere else, militants may have initial success, even seizing territory, but will eventually be rejected by local populations and rolled up by security services.

The recent Isis so-called caliphate is a good example of what goes wrong. Isis made too many enemies, too quickly. Importantly, it could never do otherwise, given the nature of its ideology. The group’s obsessive hatred of Shia Muslims precluded expansion into areas where Sunni Muslims were few. Its brutality meant loyalty was either coerced or gained from shattered, traumatised local communities who feared their own government more than the jihadists. The threat they posed could never be tolerated by regional and neighbouring states, while the long-range attacks against the west prompted an inevitable reaction that mobilised formidable firepower. Taken together, this meant the caliphate was never likely to survive for very long.

This is the pattern since modern Islamic militancy emerged in the Middle East in the early 1970s. Local campaigns have periodically burst on to the international stage, sometimes taking a central but transient role in global events, but always being dispatched eventually to the shadows of the periphery. This is where al-Qaida now lurks. It is where Isis is heading.

So the good news is that Islamic militancy will not achieve a breakthrough any time soon. The remaking of the world dreamed of by extremists will not happen – happily for everyone else, wherever they are.

But this means bad news, too: the extremists’ violence will continue to bring horror into the lives of innocents for the foreseeable future.

Jason Burke is the author of Al-Qaeda, The 9/11 wars and The New Threat, published by Bodley Head

Easter Sunday terror attacks: CID takes 44 suspects into custody

Camelia Nathaniel-Tuesday, April 30, 2019

The CID has so far taken into custody 44 suspects with regard to the April 21 Easter Sunday suicide terror attacks, said Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara during the daily update of the security situation in the country and the progress of the investigations as at yesterday.

“Another 15 suspects have been arrested by the TID and interrogations are currently underway. In relation to the Easter attack we had released the photographs and details of six most wanted suspects by the CID. As a result, the CID had been able to take into custody three of the most wanted suspects from this group.

The wife of Mohommed Zaharan was admitted to the Ampara Hospital. He said the CID suspects that two other suspects Pulasthini Rajendran alias Sahara and Mohommed Kasim Mohommed Rilwan had both perished in the suicide bombings.

 However, in order to confirm the suspicion, the CID is expected to carry out a DNA test on the suspected bodies,” he noted.

The Air Force has been entrusted with providing security to the two main international airports at Katunayake and Mattala including the prevention of any individual or group introducing an explosives device to the airport or on board an aircraft, said Air Force Spokesman Group Captain Gihan Seneviratne. “Operations are continuing to ensure its security and the overall security at the airports have been enhanced and vehicle, baggage and personnel checks have been implemented along with a number of measures deemed necessary to ensure the safety of the passengers and the facilities,” he said adding that the Air Force assures everyone that the safety of the two international airports is secure and is under the due consideration of the Sri Lanka Air Force and there is no cause for concern.

Explaining the operations carried out by the Air Force personnel he said, “On April 28 at the Finance Park area in Ekala, one person was captured by the Air Force in the possession of five mobile phones, one rifle, one sword, two daggers, two shot gun ammunition, 10 ammunition casings and three spent ammunition rounds. This person was handed over to the Ja-Ela Police for further investigations.

Around 7.00 pm on the same day during a house search operation in the Raddolugama Housing scheme, one suspect was arrested over the possession of six swords, a rifle and rifle rounds. This suspect was handed over to the Ja-Ela Police for further investigations. During a search conducted in the Cruise Park area in Ekala, the Air Force had arrested four suspects including a female having in their mobile phones videos of ISIS decapitations as well as photos of the recent attacks on the churches and hotels in Colombo. Two daggers were also found in their possession and they were handed over to the Ja-Ela Police for onward action. The Air Force Ratmalana conducted a search operation at the Mount Lavinia courts grounds last morning.”

The Air Force Spokesman also warned against the use of any kind of drone until further notice and those violating the directive would be dealt with.

Explaining the role played by the Sri Lanka Army under the present situation in the country Military Spokesman Brigadier Sumith Atapattu said the army has a proven procedure in providing security.

“Accordingly, operations were carried out covering the whole country and the army has already taken measures to identify terrorists in the East, West and all other provinces. The Saindamarudu operation is one such successful operation. The captures suspects and items are directed for investigations. Even at this moment search and arrests are being carried out. The public is encouraged to provide any information that would lead to such arrests. However, the public is adviced not to be misled by rumours being spread over social media.”

The Navy has also been acting hand in hand with the other forces to ensure the safety and security of the country. Explaining the operations carried out by the Navy, Navy Spokesman Lieutenant Commander Isuru Sooriyabandara said during the past 24 hours the Navy had taken into custody a car, two motorcycles and a three wheeler and had arrested 11 persons during search operations throughout the country. “In Jaffna the Navy had apprehended four persons over the possession of several publications related to extremist groups. They were arrested and handed over to the police. During search operations in Colombo, the Navy had apprehended three persons along with extremist publications and a person was also arrested while selling fake ID cards. The Navy has taken over the task of cleaning up and renovation of the St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade and has obtained the services of the same architect who had built the Kachchathivu island church. In a couple of months the Kochchikade Church would be restored to its former glory,” he assured.

With regard to the Norochcholai power plant and the drone sighting he said the Navy has doubled security at the facility and other vital installations along the coastal belt.