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President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed authorities to bar journalists from covering search operations conducted by the security forces, the President's Media Division (PMD) said in a statement today (07).

Unwarranted media attention, especially displayed on certain mainstream media channels discarding media ethics, has led to various communities being inconvenienced as they are being labelled as terrorists.

The President's Media Division said that religious leaders too have requested President Sirisena to instruct relevant authorities to abstain from giving media coverage during search operations.

The Press Release sent by the PMD is found below. 

"A request has been made not to telecast the occasions when the security forces conduct search operations in houses and public places through the media. Furthermore, clear instructions have been given by President Maithripala Sirisena to the security forces not to allow participation of journalists and civilians when conducting search operations and it has to be conducted exclusively by the members of the security forces.

At present, a special security programme has been implemented across the country, according to the advice of H.E. the President and under the guidance and supervision of the Ministry of Defence, following the unexpected and regrettable incidents of violence on the Easter Sunday.

Under this process, the investigation works are being carried out continuously and the houses, public places and vehicles are being inspected.

As a result of unwarranted media publicity for these investigations conduct with the aim of ensuring the public security, various communities in the society face difficulty due to the telecast of these footages and some persons who are not involved in these terrorist activities in any way face great inconveniences because the society deemed them as terrorists.

Various sections of the society, including the religious leaders have requested the President in this regard at several times, and considering those requests and in order to prevent inconvenience to any community in the society, the Government requests all the media institutions not to conduct media coverage regarding these search operations."

Nine employees at a copper factory in Wellampitiya which is believed to be linked to the recent terror attacks have been released on bail by the Colombo Chief Magistrates Court today (May 06).

The suspects were released owing to the failure of the Police to file charges against the suspects under the Prevention of Terrorism Act or any other decree, Additional Magistrate Priyantha Liyanage declared during the hearing.

Accordingly, they were released on two surety bails of Rs 500,000 each by the Additional Magistrate.

However, the 10th suspect who was also arrested in connection with the incident was ordered to be remanded in order to be produced before the Terrorism Investigations Department for questioning.

The suspects were serving as employees at a copper factory which was run by Shangri-La suicide bomber Insan Ibrahim.

India's deep state is well versed in the art of intelligence warfare. Its human intelligence-led inputs to the Sri Lankan establishment, though unutilised, showed that they were on top of their game. India has been tracking the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) for sometime now.

New Delhi moved with great alacrity passing on direct actionable intelligence in the weeks and days leading up to the Easter Sunday bombings. And this happened from material accessed during interrogations of an ISIS suspect arrested in India.

The Sri Lankan government even had a warning that Catholic churches were among the possible targets. The suspect gave Indian investigators the name of a man - Zahran Hashim - he had trained, who is associated with a Sri Lankan extremist group implicated in the bombings. The shadowy man, Zahran Hashim, was identified in a video of the purported attackers released by ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday macabre massacre.

IANS met several top intelligence functionaries to piece together the emergence of Sri Lanka as the new terror central. While doing so, it unearthed a gargantuan and deep-seated Lashkar plot which goes back at least 14 years showing how LeT had invested for years in Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and even Malaysia as part of a larger encirclement strategy of India.

Indian intelligence has been alive to this and has used all its skill sets and ground-level inputs to mitigate the terror threat emanating from the island and other neighbouring countries. It needs to be established here that ISI C Wing and LeT are two sides of the same coin as far as jihad is concerned.
ISI has been using Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq (IKK) as a proxy to radicalise unemployed Muslim youth in Sri Lanka and coax them to join the NTJ.

In parallel, India has bolstered its security apparatus in Tamil Nadu and Kerala due to the strong presence of NTJ members in these states.

The rise of IS and its vile and noxious thought process of establishing a Caliphate has found takers in Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives. At least 200-250 Maldivians have reportedly fought for the IS in trouble spots like Syria and these are mules who make the trek to Yemen where they are further indoctrinated and trained, then sent on wars sometimes to Mali and Chad for fighting or to the combat zone in Iraq and Syria to fight under the IS flag.

A Tokyo-based online magazine 'The Diplomat' validated this saying a December 2015 report by the Soufan Group, a private intelligence agency run by former FBI agent-turned contractor Ali Soufan, put out a count of foreign fighters who'd volunteered to fight for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Four South Asian countries featured in that list - Malaysia, Pakistan, India, and the Maldives - sending an estimated 393 fighters among them. It was the island nation in the Indian Ocean that sent analysts and headlines into a tizzy with the rise of radical Islam with its bent towards Salafist tendencies. It had by far the highest per capita fighters in the sandbox.

The Indian deep state has been following Islamic militancy in Sri Lanka, a fertile breeding ground since 2004. The tipping point in the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the emerald isle has Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)'s hand prints all over it. A special group headed by LeT's Muzzamil Bhat from Sialkot and his lackeys made forays into Bangladesh, the Maldives and Sri Lanka between 2005 and 2007, knowing fully well that these areas could be used to further their agenda and to encircle India.

Muzzamil Bhat is one of the planners of 26/11 and is reported to be the architect of the Chittisinghpora massacre. The entire construct of this plan to use these countries as a launchpad to train terrorists was part of his larger architecture.

The FBI in its 26/11 chargesheet named Bhat as D, a key LeT military commander, who was involved in the Chittisinghpora massacre in Jammu and Kashmir on the eve of President Bill Clinton's visit to India in March 2000.

In its second chargesheet, filed in a Chicago court, the FBI named an ISI officer, Major Iqbal, and four LeT operatives - Sajid Majeed, Abu Qahafa, Abu Alqama and the unknown Lashkar member 'D'. About 'D' the chargesheet states that after the arrest of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in Pakistan in connection with the 26/11 attacks, he became the overall operational commander of LeT.

According to FBI, 'D', who is yet to be arrested by Pakistan, was a handler of David Coleman Headley. Headley told Indian investigators that Muzzamil was involved in the Chittisinghpora massacre. In turn, Headley also said Muzzamil was most trustworthy lieutenant of Lakhvi and apart from Chittisinghpora killings of Sikhs, he planned the Akshardham temple attack in September 2002.
According to Indian security establishment sources, Muzzamil is a Kashmiri born in 1976. He is married and his family lives in the Gujranwala town of Pakistani Punjab.
Bhat, on the other hand, is a planner and his understanding was that with Indian intelligence and security forces keeping a close vigil on southern India in those years, he reckoned that taking the training camps offshore would be a better idea. SIMI was already active in southern India, they had set up a southern chapter across the four states, while Bhatkal had become a new centrifuge.

Terror central was moving from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to the southern part of India. Hence Muzzamil arrived in Sri Lanka to test the waters and quickly realised that there was traction amongst Tamil Muslims after the Tsunami, ditto in Bangladesh among the Rohingyas between 2004-2008.

But RAW which was extremely active in both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka did not allow Bhat or his henchmen to stabilise their operations.
In 2011, ably abetted and assisted by ISI officer Amir Zubair Siddiqui (Counselor in the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo), a new name popped up on the radar - Zakir Hussain - who began to actively consort with and recruit Tamil Muslims on the island. The plan was to recruit them and unleash hell on diplomatic missions in Chennai and Bangalore, but RAW once again found the scent and pursued them to cut off their feed stock of financing, explosives and weapons.

India engaged with Colombo and brought it up to speed on Siddiqui's shenanigans who was then packed off from Sri Lanka. The diplomat Amir Zubair Siddiqui's plot was to attack the US Consulate in Chennai, Israeli Consulate in Bengaluru, Eastern Naval Command HQ in Visakhapatnam and ports across the country.

Once RAW had blown his cover, NIA moved in to chargesheet Siddiqui who was then visa counselor at the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo. Siddiqui was arrested for allegedly conspiring to attack vital establishments in India and was quietly withdrawn even before the NIA's request under Mutual Assistance Legal Treaty (MLAT) reached Colombo.

The terror plot was uncovered after the NIA police personnel arrested an ISI agent Mohammed Zakir Hussain (37) through the 'Q' Branch of the Tamil Nadu police in 2013. The reason was that he was gathering details about vital installations in Tamil Nadu and sent photographs to Siddiqui. Hussain used his counterparts Sivabalan and Mohammad Salim to circulate fake currency in the state.

During questioning, Hussain also confessed that he had also used Rafeeque (29) to pump in fake Indian currency in the state.

A much larger network of Maldivians, Sri Lankan Muslims and Malaysian Tamils was discovered through this overarching probe. The hunters caught up with the quarry - Zakir Hussain - and another lynchpin was caught in Malaysia and the cartel was busted. Muzzamil Bhat was the spider who spun the web across the three countries and began the process of indoctrination in Sri Lanka. His tireless efforts paid dividends for he planted the seeds as far back as the mid 2000s. He was the first to connect the dots between Thowheed Jamaat which proselytises (mainly among the Tamil community), fights for "pure Islam" and actively promotes construction of mosques in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan Tamil Muslim areas.

(To be continued)

Parliamentarian Piyal Nishantha arrived at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) regarding the false remarks made recently at a TV programme.

Joining the 'Rathu Ira' programme, Nishantha stated on a live TV broadcast that security personnel were killed during the explosions at a safehouse in Sainthamaruthu, Kalmunai. However, the Army dismissed those claims by stating that no security personnel were killed during the fierce gun battle and explosions that erupted between the terrorists and the armed forces.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera too had requested the CID on April 27 to take immediate legal action regarding the false statement made by parliamentarian Piyal Nishatha.

The report of the committee appointed to look into regulating Madrasa schools around the country was handed over to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe by Minister of Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs Abdul Haleem on Monday.

The committee had taken into account the laws that were enforced in other countries pertaining to Madrasa Schools including the Privena Education Act when making recommendations on regulating Madrasa Schools, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The report will be also be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers after receiving advice from the Attorney General.

The chief of Sri Lanka’s army said some of the people who carried out the April 21 serial bombings in his country had travelled to regions such as Kashmir and Kerala in India to possibly be part of terrorism training activities, according to an interview with the BBC published online on Friday.

The comments by Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake is the first confirmation by a senior security official in either of the countries of the terrorists having travelled to India, a link that Indian security agencies have been pursuing since shortly after the attacks in the island nation.

“They had gone to India, travelling to Bangalore, Kashmir and Kerala state, (according to) information available with us,” Senanayake said.
Asked if he was aware of the purpose of those visits, the army commander replied: “It would have been for some sort of a training or to establish links with other organisations outside the country”.

The Sri Lankan army chief has said that some of the people who carried out the April 21 serial bombings had travelled to Kashmir and Kerala to possibly be part of terrorism training activities.(AFP)

Counter-terror agencies such as the National Investigation Agency have carried out raids in parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where they have picked up several people for suspected links to the Islamic State – the Syria-based terror group that claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to Indian officials who have not to be named, at least two of the suicide bombers had travelled to India in 2017.

A Union home ministry official did not comment on the Sri Lanka Army chief’s comment. “Sri Lanka hasn’t shared any such information with us. Importantly, Sri Lankan security agencies themselves have ruled this out after investigation,” a senior official in the security establishment, who did not wanted to named, said. Till now, Indian investigators have not mentioned a Kashmir link to the Lankan bombers, though leads were still being followed.

One of the key suspects who is believed by Indian officials to have visited India is Islamic preacher Maulvi Zahran Bin Hashim – leader of Sri Lanka National Towheed Jama’at (NTJ) and the ringleader of Easter Sunday attackers.

Indian officials refused to share details about the purpose of Hashim’s visit or the people he was in touch with. Hashim, an official said, was initially associated with Tamil Nadu Towheed Jama’at (TNTJ) but the organisation was not found involved in any terror activities. 

He subsequently broke away from TNTJ to form his own – Sri Lanka National Towheed Jama’at (NTJ) and started preaching violent form of Islam in the island nation. (Hindustan Times)

Although the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had attempted to arrest MP Piyal Nishantha for trying to incite communal riots by making false statements, it has been reported that high level political interference had thwarted Nishantha's arrest.

Piyal Nishantha was grilled by the CID after he was summoned yesterday to give a statement on remarks made by him on a live TV programme, ‘Rathu Ira’ on Swarnavahini, on April 26.

Piyal's incendiary comments

Parliamentarian Piyal Nishantha said that 11 soldiers were killed in a clash with terrorists in the Sainthamaruthu area. The MP said that he received credible information in this regard and that he would take full responsibility for his statement.

Maithri and Mangala’s complaints

However, the Army rejected the claim made by Nishantha. It was clear that the false statement had been deliberately carried out with the intention of creating communal clashes. Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera too made a written complaint to the CID requesting them to investigate into the false statement made by Nishantha.

Furthermore, President Maithripala Sirisena too had informed the CID to investigate the statement made by the UPFA parliamentarian. It was according to those instructions that Nishantha was summoned to the CID yesterday (06).

Mahinda’s frequent calls to Sirisena

Although the CID had tried to arrest Nishantha based on his statement, Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapakse had intervened to prevent it.

It is reported that Mahinda Rajapaksa had continuously made phone calls to President Sirisena and the President’s Office and insisted on the release of Piyal Nishantha.

In the end, the CID had released Nishantha but inquiries into his statement had not been concluded.
 
Ashu Marasinghe summoned to the CID

Meanwhile, parliamentarian Ashu Marasinghe is scheduled to be summoned to the CID, today (07).

Marasinghe’s visit to the CID is based on a statement made by MP Piyal Nishantha, yesterday (06), to the Criminal Investigation Department.
 
Did Ashu pass information to Piyal?

Parliamentarian Piyal Nishantha had revealed that he received information from UNF MP Ashu Marasinghe.

The CID had informed Marasinghe to come to the CID and give a statement in this regard.
 
Investigation not over!

It was also revealed that the investigation into the statement made by the MP is still ongoing and that the statement to be given by Ashu Marasinghe could be a decisive factor in the investigation. Furthermore, sources said that the CID is due to record statements from several other interested parties as well.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed the relevant authorities to pay compensation for the properties that were damaged during yesterday's tense situation in Negombo, the Prime Minister's Office said today.

Tensions flared in Poruthota in Negombo when a clash between two groups of three wheel drivers ensued into a full blown fight prompting police to impose a curfew within the Negombo division. 

A personal argument between two people had escalated to the point where other bystanders in the area joined in but it was swiftly brought under control by Army and Police, it was reported.  

Compensation would be paid after conducting an assessment in order to estimate the damages caused to both public and private property, the Prime Minister's Office said.

These funds would be disbursed by the Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development and Youth Affairs.

The gazette notice banning the controversial National Thowheed Jama'at (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem (JMI) that were to be banned following a statement issued by President Maithripala Sirisena on April 27 has not yet been issued.

On April 27, the President’s Media Unit issued a press statement claiming that steps are being taken to ban the NTJ and JMI under the Emergency Regulations No. 01 of 2019. However, the relevant gazette notification has not been issued even by this morning.

Secretary to the President Udaya Seneviratne has told the media that the Government would issue the gazette notification, today (6).

He has said the Secretariat was waiting for approval in writing from the newly-appointed Defence Secretary, Shantha Kottegoda, in order to issue the gazette.

The decision to issue the gazette today was taken at the National Security Council (NSC) meeting held on Friday (3) night, Seneviratne has said.

Military Spokesman Brigadier Sumith Atapattu has said that President Sirisena had already signed the relevant documents and handed them over to the Presidential Secretariat, but the process was on hold as the Intelligence Services wanted to ban a few other organizations together with the initially mentioned ones.

However, sources say that even though there were several requests made by the intelligence units in the country requesting to ban a few other organizations, the heads of all government law enforcement authorities had agreed to gazette the NTJ and JMI as an initial step and later add other organizations.

Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the proposed counter terrorism law is tough on ordinary citizens by having provisions that can be used to stifle political dissent and the freedom of expression.  The former strongman president in a statement yesterday said the new law is designed to treat terrorists with the utmost leniency to the extent where its actual effect will be that of protecting and giving encouragement to terrorists – not countering terrorism.

"Our Penal Code prescribes the death penalty for killing just one person, but under the proposed counter terrorism law, a terrorist convicted of killing hundreds of or even thousands of people can only be given a maximum sentence of life imprisonment," he said.

Rajapaksa noted that the draft counter terrorism law that has been presented to Parliament has encountered opposition from political and media activists on the grounds that that the way it defines the term 'terrorism' leaves room for legitimate political and trade union action as well as the dissemination of information and protection of sources by the media to be labeled as terrorist activity. 

However, Rajapaksa credits the former UNP government that introduced the Prevention of Terrorism act in 1979 as a tough law. 

"There is no argument about the fact that the Prevention of Terrorism Act introduced by the UNP government in 1979 is a tough law. But we have had to deal with the most ruthless terrorists the world has ever seen and that would not have been possible if not for such laws," he noted.

On April 21, 2019, a series of coordinated terrorist suicide bombings wreaked havoc in Sri Lanka. The terrorists, linked to the National Thowheeth Jama'th targeted Christian churches and luxury hotels in Colombo. 253 people including at least 40 foreign nationals were murdered in these attacks, casualties that could have been avoided according to Indian investigative agencies, if the Island nation had heeded to the three warnings which came from intelligence gathered by the Tamil Nadu Police's Special Department assigned to monitor radical elements.

Close to two weeks before the attack, the Special Department in Tamil Nadu, had sent information to New Delhi regarding terrorist activity in Sri Lanka. The intelligence was gathered by the department's local sources in Colombo and adjoining cities. A total of three warnings had been sent.

"The exact way the information was gathered cannot be revealed but we gave accurate information to the Centre. Once the Special Department got to know of the attacks, the NIA, IB and R&AW was informed about it. We had even said very specifically that churches would be under attack," says a source aware of the intelligence transferred. "Once the Centre was aware, they sent it to Sri Lanka through the proper channels. This was at least 10 days before the attack," he adds.

The Sri Lankan government, however, allegedly took no action based on the intelligence provided. The TN Special Division's intelligence network in Sri Lanka continued to deliver important information, maintaining that the attack was imminent. Another message was sent from the Centre to the Sri Lankan authorities on the Wednesday before the attack.

"Once again they did nothing and the final message we sent was on Easter morning, hours before the attack. We told them, the terrorists are closing in. At least do something now. But over 200 lives were lost because they did nothing," says the intelligence officer. "They could have their own reasons to not believe any information that comes to them. But the least they could do it secure the churches, frisk people who are coming or at least have bomb detectors. They could have been cautious," he says.

Case in point is of course how Tamil Nadu reacted after a hoax caller from Bengaluru claimed that railway stations in the state would be under attack. Several district Superintendents of police that Tamil Nadu Minute spoke to were skeptical of the authenticity of the caller's information. Despite that security was increased across the state based on the DGP's orders.

"After the blasts, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh expressed his high regard to the Tamil Nadu Special Division which got the correct information regarding the imminent threat," says the intelligence officer. "We are dismayed that Sri Lanka failed to act and that our information could not save hundreds of lives. Despite this however we continue to give them intelligence reports and that is currently helping the government there."

(Tamil Nadu Minute)

A joint federation of several Muslim organisations and the Sri Lanka Muslim Civil Society (SLMCS), together with a representative gathering of Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu and Islamic clergy, Security Force chiefs and leading civil activists, staged a three-hour long 'Rise up for Solidarity Peace Vigil' at Independence Square on Saturday morning (05). 

Hundreds of people had gathered to vehemently and unequivocally condemned the brutal, barbaric acts of the terrorists that resulted in the death of hundreds of people on Easter Sunday. After offering prayers, they vowed to join hands with the Security Forces and other governmental authorities to bring back the peaceful co-existence of all communities.
 
Expressing solidarity with all bereaved families and injured people, Muslim Civil Society Activists publicly condemned the brutal slaying of innocent people by disgruntled members of a misguided group and pronounced that no religion has preached these types of killings to reach spiritual attainments whatsoever. 

Buddhist monks, Christian, Catholic and Hindu priests, as well as civil activists from all faiths commended the restraint displayed by all Sri Lankans by not resorting to violent retributions that could have led to more bloodbaths. They also praised the tireless contribution of all members of the Armed Forces and the Police to ensure the peace and stability in the country. 

The occasion, themed on 'Humanity Beyond Religion' was addressed by Ven Madampagama Assaji Thero, Dr A. T Ariyaratne of 'Sarvodaya', Hindu Kurukkal and leading Moulawis and Muslim leaders.

Placard holding activists, including Muslim women, underlined the importance of being united at this critical juncture. Some of the placards read, 'Terrorism Has No Religion', 'Family of One Nation', 'Together We are Sri Lankans', 'Rise, Resist, United' etc.