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The Cabinet has approved the proposal put forward by Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam to distribute tablet computers (tabs) among school children in spite of president Maithripala Sirisena’s objections.

Kariyawasam’s proposal calls for the free distribution of 183,000 tabs at a cost of Rs. 3.5 billion.

The President, from the beginning, held the view that a pilot project should be implemented first on the distribution of tablets. He had opined that a final decision could be taken subject to the results of the pilot project and that there is no need to provide 183,000 tabs at this initial stage.

The matter was taken up for discussion at the Cabinet meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday (07). Despite his objections, president Sirisena caved in, enabling the Education Minister to get Cabinet approval to proceed with the programme.

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)

The Ministry of Finance announced a host of measures aimed at strengthening the tourism industry including the reduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) imposed on hotels and tourist operators. The tourism sector was one of worst affected after the deadly Easter Sunday attacks that rocked the island nation after the country was named as the best travel destination for 2019 by the world's premier travel magazine, 'Lonely Planet,' last year.

Accordingly, a moratorium will be announced shortly by the Central Bank to tourism sector institutions and individuals on a case by case basis. The moratorium period will be until 31st March 2020 for both capital and interest payments granted to the tourism sector as of 18th April 2019, a release by the Finance Ministry said.

Furthermore, capital and interest falling due during the moratorium period should be converted into a term loan which should be recovered from July 2020 and charged a concessionary rate.

Enterprise Sri Lanka

With regard to the Enterprise Sri Lanka credit schemes introduced by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera to create a new entrepreneur class, the Finance Ministry said that they will allocate Rs. 1.5 billion to provide interim releif for teh tourism sector loans coming under the Enterprise Sri Lanka credit schemes. 

Tourism sector loans (Jaya Isura, Green Loan etc.) shall also be considered on a case-by-case basis for the moratorium, State Minister Eran Wickramaratne said. He added that the interest subsidy will be borne by the government on outstanding credit facilities (both capital and interest) granted to the tourism sector in the performing category as at 18th April 2019.

Borrower’s repayment will start from 1st April 2020 and capital and interest payments falling due during the moratorium can be recovered from July 2020 onwards. Alternatively, the repayment period can be extended for the number of months it was falling due during the moratorium.

Tourism loans registered on or before 18th April 2019 will be granted before 31st March 2020 under Enterprise Sri Lanka, with the interest subsidy to be borne by the government to continue from the granted date. 

Working Capital Loans 

Arrangements have been made to allow the tourism sector to obtain fresh Working Capital under the Enterprise Sri Lanka scheme with a repayment period of 2 years.  75% interest subsidy will be borne by the government from the effective interest rate until 31st March 2020.
The interest will be at 3.4% as the government is giving a 75% interest subsidy, the Finance Ministry said. 
VAT Reduced

VAT will be reduced from 15% to 5% on hotels and tour operators registered with Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) from 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020. 

Concessions for Security Equipment 

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who is on an official visit to Fiji to attend the Annual Meetings of Asian Development Bank (ADB), said on Friday (03) that he was looking to give special concessions to the tourism industry with regard to the importation of security equipment. 

Accordingly, the government has allowed the importation of security equipment duty-free, effective from 7th May 2019. However, they will be liable to pay the NBT.  The Finance Ministry said that this provision is not limited to the tourism industry and is applicable to all industries. The following security equipment could be imported duty-free.

○       Handheld Metal Detector
○       Walk-through Metal Detector
○       Baggage x-ray Inspection Equipment
○       Vehicle Scanners

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.

All those who were directly involved in the Easter Sunday attacks have been arrested or have been confirmed dead, Acting Police chief C.D. Wickramaratne said.  

Police on Monday in a statement said that explosives the terrorists had kept for use in more attacks have also been seized by the security forces. Wickramaratne requested the public not be mislead by misinformation and false claims.

Army Commander Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake said that the military has taken steps to ensure national security under the emergency regulations and requested the public to resume their daily activities without any fear. 

Meanwhile, Navy Commander Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva noted that the Navy had taken the necessary measures to ensure the safety of the island's ports.

Air Force Commander Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathy underscored that the Air Force had carried out extensive searches in schools throughout the country.

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.

In a letter addressed to the President of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), As-Sheikh Rizwe Mufthi, the State Ministry of Defence has refuted claims made by Rizwe Mufthi at the all-religious leaders’ meeting held under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena on April 26.

The Secretary to the State Ministry of Defence, N.K.G.K. Nammawatta refuted the claim made by President of ACJU that the latter had handed over all information and documents regarding the IS-affiliated Islamist extremists in Sri Lanka to State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene in 2015.

The State Ministry of Defence has urged As-Sheikh Rizwe Mufthi to rectify “this misleading and misrepresentation of facts” and emphasized that legal action would be taken against him if he fails to comply.

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.

The revision application filed by former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa challenging the Trial-at-Bar order dated January 11, 2019 in the D. A. Rajapaksa Museum case was fixed for May 17 by Court of Appeal.

Court of Appeal two-judge-bench comprising justice Achala Wengappuli and Justice Arjuna Obeysekera fixed the application for May 17 in order to announce a date for the order.

On February 11, the Permanent High Court-at-Bar decided to overrule preliminary objections raised by Gotabaya Rajapaksa and six others in connection with the D. A. Rajapaksa Museum case citing that the Permanent High Court-at-Bar has jurisdiction to hear this case. 

The former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence is being charged in connection with the alleged misappropriation of public funds belonging to the Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (LRDC), amounting to Rs. 33.9 million, that was used to construct D.A. Rajapaksa Museum and Memorial in Medamulana.

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)

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.