Shenali D Waduge

Religious wars are nothing new. History will recount the Holy Wars & Crusades between Christians & Islam. Abrahamic religions find no fault in killing in the name of religion. Religious texts & verses continue to be used to manipulate youth to kill. Such killers are treated as martyrs. This is why majority of terrorist groups & terrorists belong to the same faith & their terror always quotes their religious texts. Thus, undeniably verses play a key role in molding people to kill & form groups of radicals. This is why Sri Lanka had intel units shadowing radical groups & were watching them. The tape issued by Zaharan is also noteworthy of revisiting & investigating to explain the source for the attacks. If any reconciliation has to take place it is between these 2 religious sects.

However, what is alarming is the fact that scores of people knew there was going to be an attack before the attack. The evidence of SIS Head Nilantha Jayawardena claims that by 11 April 2019 (one week before attacks) at least 10,000 including embassies knew of an impeding attack. He claims that in all at least 15,000 would have known of an impending attack.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=344462696659557

Who were sent copies of the intel warnings?

Who were kept in the loop?

How many of this 10,000 neglected to prevent the attacks?

Then Defense Secretary, Hemasiri Fernando admitted he knew something would happen but thought it was something small!

Who else outside of the security apparatus, knew other than Harin’s father?

Harin’s father informed Harin not to go to Church – who else did Harin inform not to go to Church on Easter Sunday?

How come most of those who annually attend Easter Sunday mass decided not to attend mass on that particular Easter Sunday?

Did Harin tell the Church, some fathers were aware – did they or did they not inform the Cardinal?

How many Catholics in Parliament did not attend Easter Sunday mass that day?

Who knew but kept silent? Investigate this!

Why didn’t the keyboard mavericks even put a single social media post giving a warning?

All those who knew but kept silent are as guilty as the 8 Islamic suicide bombers who carried out the mass murder. Those who knew did nothing to prevent innocent people getting killed. Their conscience should prick them daily for this.

This was how the yahapalana govt MPs shamelessly reacted to the attacks. https://www.facebook.com/samantha.weeramanthri.9/videos/1116869251988745/

Yahapalana govt is also guilty of dividing officials along political lines & to follow political orders without independence to their job role. The closure of intel units monitoring radical Islam youth & without charge putting intel officers in prison resulted in weakening & making vulnerable Sri Lanka’s security apparatus as well as demoralizing the forces & intel units. Their ability to quickly round up & arrest those involved after the attacks showed they had the network in place.

It was on account of the politicized divisions created by the yahapalana government in the Law & Order apparatus that left every authority passing the pillow of decision taking.

If as per SIS Head Nilantha Jayawardena at least 15000 knew of an impending attack WHY WAS EASTER SUNDAY MASS NOT CANCELLED? Why were people NOT PREVENTED from entering the church? Why were hotels not informed to beef up security? Why were the suicide bombers not apprehended & arrested before they could carry out the attack given their names were released before the attacks?

With these facts very clear, there are some ranting on about conspiracy theories and political conspiracies of mastermind Easter Sunday to come to power which includes the Church.

While the Church has to first respond & be investigated for being aware of the attacks before the attacks, for those peddling political conspiracies need to be reminded that the yahapalana govt by 2019 were on their way out. Having promised the people to deliver good governance, they delivered nothing of the sort – 2 bond scams, 99-year lease of Hambantota Port, taking $12.5b ISBs from Western private hedge funds & passing repayment to the next govt, the 2018 local government elections clearly showed the yahapalana govt was on their way out of power. Therefore, contrary to what some want to believe, there was no requirement to brainwash 8 suicide bombers when 15000 in the govt knew that an attack was going to happen before the attack happened. The conspiracy is nowhere else but inside the yahapalana govt. However even Interpol congratulated President Sirisena https://www.defence.lk/Article/view_article/480 – 27 Aug 2019. In 8 January 2021, FBI charged 3 Sri Lankans with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.

In May 2021, America’s FBI confirmed Maulavi Mohamed Naufer as mastermind of Sri Lanka’s 2019 Easter Sunday bombing.

Yet, President Ranil in September 2022 sought assistance of Scotland Yard to review reports on the Easter Sunday https://www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=55868

In October 2021, some 25 suspects were issued 23,270 charges over the deaths of 269 civilians on Easter Sunday.

President AKD must also investigate the radicals in his own party, after his national list member’s 2 sons were 2 of the suicide bombers and their wives also committed suicide. This is important given their closeness to the President himself & the security risk involved.

There is also need to investigate the role of Indian intel & why they did not make public the warnings that were sent? India released names, mobile numbers & target venues hours before the attacks – this was sufficient to prevent people entering the Church & evacuating people from the hotels.

The yahapalana government came to power with help of a consortium of political parties that included the JVP and assisted by US & India who openly applauded their triumph in 2015. If there was a political conspiracy to overthrow the government they helped bring to power given that India issued 90 plus warnings, surely, they would have included this in their warnings too!

How much of public funds have so far been spent on Commissions & investigations? Let us not forget that Easter Sunday is not the only murders that have taken place in Sri Lanka. LTTE killed thousands over 30 years. Why have these deaths not been given the same justice in the form of repeated Commissions & investigations? Treat all dead equally. Commissions & investigations cannot be reopened for only one crime ignoring others especially when those calling for justice” have to first respond to whether they were aware of the attacks before the attacks.

Therefore instead of repeating the investigations, a better option is to investigate all those who were aware of the attacks before the attacks including the family members of the suicide bombers & hold them accountable for neglect & aiding & abetting murder.

Shenali D Waduge