Courtesy The Island

The Sri Lankan security forces had turned from being hunters to fishermen during the last few years and the spirit of the security forces had been crushed since 2015, expert on terrorism Rohan Gunaratna told a meeting organised by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Centre yesterday in Colombo.

Gunaratna said that the Easter Sunday attack was not an intelligence failure but a failure of political leadership. Sri Lankan forces provided the government with accurate information, Gunaratna said.

“The forces had gone from being hunters to fishermen,” he said, reflecting on the attitudinal change. Earlier the security forces would have hunted people like Zahran and eliminated the threat. However now they waited until such actors came to them. This is like a fishermen who waited after casting his fishing line.

Gunaratna said that the security forces had successfully eradicated the group that carried out Easter Bombings. However, such groups were compartmentalised, secretive and acted in cells. “Thus, there might be some more cells left. So, the intelligence agencies must be careful,” he said.

The academic said that the US and Israeli intelligence operatives who had come to Sri Lanka had reported that there were no local groups with links to the ISIS. However, Zahran kept in touch with ISIS through Abdul Jameel Mohammad, who had become radicalised during his time at Kingston University between 2006 and 2007. Jameel later went to Australia, where he developed contacts with Australian ISIS cells. Australian intelligence agencies have told Sri Lanka that Jameel was communicating with Australian Jihadists in 2015.

Gunaratna noted that the divided political leadership of the country further demoralised the security forces and it was the responsibility of the 225 MPs to pass legislations that would address the issue. “This happened on your watch,” he said.

Gunaratna also proposed a national security Act, criminalising hate speech, regulating religious space among other things.