Chanaka Bandarage

Channel 4 and some influential people with vested interests want to stir the pot. They do not like a calm, settled, prosperous Sri Lanka.

Now they try to link politicians, top law enforcement officials with the Easter Sunday attack. For eg. attempt to link the ex-President, Gota with the crime.

True, few days after the attack Gota returned to Sri Lanka where he condemned the attack and indicated that he will contest the soon to be held Presidential election. He stressed that he will solve the country’s law and order problem. It seems this is the main ‘evidence’ available to link Gota with the Easter Sunday attack.

Some acts he did as the Executive like transferring out CID officials from the enquiry cannot be sanctioned, but they do not make him a suspect of the crime. Then, there are questions like the allegedly dubious DNA tests, the former IGP’s alleged involvement in releasing a suspicious lorry, the utterances ‘Zonik, Zonik’ etc.

For some of these anomalies (there are many), answers may never be found. This is the case in many crimes.

What is important is the prosecution to satisfy the ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ test.

We all know Zahran gave leadership to the attack with the help of his immediate family members and some friends.

The million-dollar question that everyone asks – was there a master brain (mastermind) behind Zahran?

One school of thought is that Zahran was only an agent, there was a master brain behind him.

Zaharan was a Muslim fundamental fanatic – a brutal terrorist. It is ludicrous to believe he would team up with Gota – an alleged Sinhala Buddhist ‘chauvinist’. Zaharan would never have wanted to help Gota to come to power.

Between 2010 – 2015, a leading Buddhist monk was primarily responsible for spreading hatred against Muslims.

During the same period, innocent Muslims were attacked in many places – Aluthgama, Digana, Pujapitiya and Ginthota are few such places. Anyone who watches Zahran’s videos  would agree that his sermons were very much against what was done to the Muslims.  In the videos he resembled a wild beast, not a human. Zaharan vouched to take vengeance.

Zaharan’s sermons are clear – what we can conclude from them is that after committing the revenge killings, he wanted to go to heaven. The Dehiwela suicide bomber Jameel wanted the same – go to Allah.

Another school of thought is that Zaharan was himself the master brain. This writer belongs to that school. So is Professor Rohan Gunarathne. Of course Zaharan did receive external support. 

The former Attorney General (AG) stated that the crime had an international connection – was he referring to ISIS, Abu Hind of Thamilnadu or a foreign country? 

Do we have the time, money, energy and resources to go from one investigation to another? Even then, will we find the ultimate truth? If yes, would we be able to punish foreign culprits?

Whatever further investigations that will be conducted, they would be subjected to criticism – both locally and internationally.

Soon after the Easter attack the Cardinal showed true leadership. It is time for His Holiness to intervene and calm things down. The debate is never ending (now 5 ½ years old). It is causing too much division in the country.

It is only the Cardinal who can do this – in the best interests of the country. The whole country listens to him.

To fulfill its ‘conspiracy theory’, they (Channel 4 et al) point the finger at a reputed intelligence officer. For this, Channel 4’s main witness is the former Private Secretary of a leading Eastern Province Tamil Tiger. What credibility has he got?

How can one trust terrorists?

Previously, Channel 4 has produced false, fabricated videos about Sri Lanka; especially that Sri Lanka killed 40,000 innocent Tamil civilians in the final stages of the war. This writer has written extensively about them (through Sri Lanka Support Group). Internationally, we still pay a high price for them.

Being a strong Tamil Separatist sympathiser, Channel 4 is prepared to go to any extent to attack Sri Lanka. In time, we should not be surprised if it starts attacking AKD and his currently fine government.

Within few days after the attack, Zahran’s entire entourage was captured. They are currently facing criminal prosecution – scores of them. This is very good.

The court proceedings might provide  us the full story.

If there was a mastermind he/she may be revealed in court.

The best is to wait and watch how things would unfold in court.

Before being captured, some of Zaharan’s family members in Sainthamaruthu committed suicide.

Basically after the attack, the then government did everything that it had to do.

It was Ranil who led the operation cleverly to capture/arrest the surviving terrorists; though Maithree tries to take the credit for same.

Upon hearing the attack, Maithree did not rush to Sri Lanka from Singapore. He had taken the last available flight that day (this is unbelievable on the part of a President).

If there are more suspects, CID will without hesitation arrest them.

The government spent millions on the 1^st Presidential enquiry. How much more are we going to spend on the next?

Like ‘the beggar’s wound’, vested interest groups seem  not wanting the Easter Sunday issue to fade away. The country must move on.

This government must give top priority on fixing the economy. Everything else is secondary.

As a result of becoming bankrupt, the country is hemorrhaging. Many children are starving. These are the current burning issues.

In the last 40 years, there have been hundreds and thousands of terrorist victims in Sri Lanka. Those victims’ families and survivors of the atrocities also seek justice. In Aranthalawa about 25 Buddhist monks were killed cold blooded. The perpetrators are still at large. It is rumored that one leader of that terrorist squad later became a Cabinet Minister and another a Chief Minister!

This is Sri Lanka.

The populace has paid a high price for not having a strong leader to rule them.

For their negligence, Maithri, Nilantha, Pujitha and Hemasiri have been punished by the country’s highest Court. Hefty fines were imposed on them. That was right. The Court never held that they were the master brains. Of course, they were not the master brains.