How We Came To This Pass: Rise Of Militant Islam
Dr. Sachithanandam Sathananthan
April 21
It is now customary to find Sinhalese, Tamil and (a few) Muslim co-Liberals perched around watering holes in Colombo and Kandy, with head in hand, drowning their sorrows while mumbling, How Did We Come To This Pass? They wonder, whatever happened to the glorious Peace Dividend politicians promised us, and we believed? And didn’t we lustily cheer LTTE’s slaughter, fantasising that after the organisation’s demise Sinhalese chauvinism will run out of excuses for dodging “peace”?
A professor (ethnically Sinhalese) at a Lankan university captured the angst of Liberals in two key questions: “How did we end up here? How do we find a way out?”[1]
Several political tributaries merged over the past many decades and swelled into the roaring torrent in which Lankans are floundering. We begin with the most recent one – the emergence and explosive arrival of Militant Islam.
The 21 April 2019 Easter Sunday’s well-coordinated bombings on the western and eastern flanks of the island shook the nation. Within about 48 hours officialdom, security forces and the press almost unanimously concluded that (a) radical Islamists carried out the attacks, (b) the attacks are suicide operations, (c) the Islamists are members of NTJ (National Thowheed Jamath) or its offshoot and an alleged ally, Jamathei Millath Ibrahim (JMI) and (d) that the Sunni IS (Islamic State) remote-controlled the attack using local NTJ/JMI proxies.
Of course there is more to life than what meets the eye or, rather, what is allowed to meet the eye!
Early news reports peddled hackneyed Islamaphobia. The report filed by three journalists – including a Sinhalese – inaleading U.S. newspaper on 23 April sweepingly alleged the NTJ, led by Mohammed Zahran, and JMI together carried out the attacks, although the organizations are not on record claiming responsibility.But the reporters contradicted themselves almost in the next breath. “Many counterterrorism experts”, the report sheepishly admitted, “found it hard to believe that Mr. Zaharan’s [sic] group carried out a half-dozen coordinated bombings with such deadly precision.[2]
That’s not surprising. The virtually unknown NTJ is less than ten years old and it has no track record of armed actions – assassinations, bombings, etc. The JMI was reportedly formed barely a year ago. So, their cadres are still wet behind the ears; the organisations simply cannot have acquired the skill and experience to single-handedly launch the countrywide synchronized attacks on eight locations within a short time between8.30 and 9.45 in the morning.
In fact, the LTTE even at the height of its power never achieved anything comparable!
One of two alleged attackers who booked into the Shangri-La Hotel is reported [3]to have helpfully recorded his true address, which security forces claim led them to his residence in Dematagoda, northern Colombo.
Further evidence of their clumsiness was laid bare in Sainthamaruthu on 26 April. If news reports are accurate, NTJ’s cadres ineptly attracted attention to their “safe house” by rudely shooing away inquisitive villagers. When “the villagers went back to the house a second time…with a government official,” instead of politely inviting them to tea and biscuits and then waving them goodbye, “the suspects opened fire.”[4]
The NTJ cadres in effect gratuitously invited their own destruction.
The subsequent gun battle with the armed forces sealed their fate and the government predictably banned both organisations.
It beggars belief that these rank amateurs could have on their own meticulously planned in secret and almost flawlessly executed the April 21 precisionbombings.
The IS factor
Other observers too came to the same conclusion, that the “theory” NTJ and JMI’s masterminded April 21 is leaking like a sieve. So, the IS (Islamic State) bogey was trotted out. That too fell flat.
The same U.S. newspaper report cheerfully asserted IS “claimed responsibility” but diluted to IS “boasting of the suicide attacks” and fizzled out to there is “no proof that the extremist group did more than provide encouragement”. All this within the space of three paragraphs; President Trump would in all probability have raised a glass to this Fake News!
Undeterred by the paucity of evidence, a former Sri Lankan journalist, now ensconced in Canada, joined the chorus linking NTJ to the IS.[5]
“After its…military reversals” in Iraq and Syria, he argued, “the IS began to intensify and accelerate terrorist attacks elsewhere” in order “to demonstrate that the movement…possessed a lethal, global reach…by outsourcing deadly missions of violence” to Islamic militant organisations in other countries. And he asserted: “This is what seems to have happened in the case of Sri Lanka too.”
That may be interesting as far as it goes. But why didn’t the IS demonstrate its “global reach” by outsourcing to its South Asian allies – tried and tested, and far more lethal – in Pakistan and Bangladesh? Why speculate it “seems to have happened”in Sri Lanka?
To buttress his claim the journalist rolled out further speculations without a shred of evidence: “the blueprint for the well-coordinated attacks…seems to have been devised by IS strategic planners too. It is believed that Zahran Hashim was the linchpin.”
Those dodgy words, “seems” and “believed”!
The so-called link between the IS and NTJ frayed further. An 18-minute clip with audio and videosurfaced on 24 April. It featured the IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “speaking about…Baghouz, Syria, while praising terrorist bombings in Sri Lanka.” It was repeatedly held out as proof of IS’s involvement. But – and this is crucial – “the statement about Sri Lanka appeared in an audio portion of the video that did not show Baghdadi.” The clip was obviously doctored; for the audio portion “may have been tacked on after he was filmed following the fall of Baghouz.”[6]
While various “theories” of IS – NTJ links were bandied about, the Cabinet Spokesmanand Health Minister, in a 30 April press conference, dropped a bombshell. “Quoting from a confidential intelligence report, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said that both Islamist and Buddhist extremist groups were initially bankrolled by the former government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa” and that “”Thowheed Jamath Secretary Abdul Razik Rafiqudeen was an army intelligence member”.[7]
Clearly the Health Minister’s allegation must be investigated as a matter of urgency. But so far the government has maintained a stony silence!
If the Minister is correct, the hapless NTJ was well and truly penetrated by Sri Lankan intelligence!
The suspended IGP (Inspector General of Police, ethnically Sinhalese) added fuel to the NTJ fire.[9]In a 20-page Fundamental Rights petition he submitted to Supreme Court last week, he stated “by letter dated 08th April 2018, the State Intelligence Service [which reports directly to the President] expressly requested the Petitioner to instruct the DIG, Terrorism Investigation Department to suspend all investigations into extremist Muslim factions associated with known international terrorist organizations operating within the country since such investigations caused prejudice to the secret investigations that were being carried out by the State Intelligence Service” (Clause 48).[10]
If the IGP is to be believed, who then are the actual handlers of NTJ’s alleged suicide bombers? Does this point to April 21 possibly being a “false flag” operation?
If the supposed IS – NTJ link is dubious at best, why have so many reporters bent over backwards to impute credibility to the “theory”? One reason could be their universal predilection to sensationalism, promote moral panic and to boost their flagging reputation.
But there could be a more insidious tendency that resembles Bangladesh’s recent experience. Following the 2016 siege of the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, western powers through their mercenary media hacks whipped up a so-called “link” between the local attackers and the IS.
