The island nation is in state of mourning. Sri
Lanka government has imposed emergency since midnight of Monday. The dastardly
serial blasts that ripped the nation apart, the worst since 9/11 brought back
the gruesome memories of the civil war plunging the nation into enormous grief
and agony.
Six major blasts in the span of 10 hours rocked
the nation on Easter Sunday inflicting terrible blow to the delicate communal
harmony of the island. Three famous churches in cities- Colombo, Negombo and
Batticaloa and high-end hotels frequented by foreigners in the capital city of
Colombo- Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury came under attack. The suicidal
bomb attacks on Christian congregations not only invited international wrath
but deliberately bolstered religious intolerance.
Even as death toll of the dastardly serial
attacks in Sri Lanka continued to raise, no group has claimed responsibility
for the horrendous death dance unleased by enemies of the humanity. After
attacks, Sri Lankan bomb squads intensified searches to sanitise public places,
recovered huge cache of unexploded explosives and took suspects into custody.
While Sri Lanka government maintained stoic silence on terror suspects social
media was abuzz with theories of victimhood, ranging from lack of spirited governmental
action in bridging the ethnic fissures in the island to that of the
majoritarian attacks. The trail of the blood shed left no doubt that these
massive attacks couldn’t have been the handiwork of the home-grown radical
groups. Sri Lanka witnessed a sudden surge in mushrooming of radical Islamist
groups since 2014.
For long India has been warning Sri Lankan
government of the possible penetration of Pakistani terrorist groups into the
island. In the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami, the charity wing of LeT (Lashkar
e Toiba), Idara Kidmat e Kalaq under the ruse of extending help in
rehabilitation swiftly made inroads into the island. Ever since process of
radicalisation kickstarted in the island. To encircle India, ISI (Inter-Services
Intelligence) began expanding its activities leading to the building up of arc
of Islamist threat in countries of Bay of Bengal region-Maldives, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal. Indeed, in September 2014, India’s National
Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a Sri Lankan citizen spying in India at the
behest of his handlers in Pakistan High Commission in Colombo. Though Sri Lanka
was indifferent to Pakistan’s overtures, ISI has been conveniently using the
diplomatic offices in Sri Lanka to establish its bases. Gradually reports of
Sri Lankan citizens joining ranks in Al-Qaeda began to hit headlines. In 2015,
IS (Islamic State) in its magazine paid tribute to two radicalised Sri Lankan
citizens who have joined IS ranks in Syria. These instances brought to fore the
extent of radicalisation of Sri Lankan youth. Last year, the Islamist group, NTJ
(National Tawheed Jamath) caught the attention of the nation for defacing the
Buddhist statues in Sri Lanka.
Since 2012, clashes between the majoritarian
Buddhists and the Islamic minority began to common place. The outbreak of
sectarian violence threatened the peace and stability of the island nation. Indeed,
hours after reports of initial blasts, traditional Sri Lankan observers
attributed these to the events to the Buddhist organisation-Bodu Bala Sena
(BBS).
Coming a month after the indiscriminate shooting
spree in the twin mosques of Christ Church, some analysts speculated Sri Lankan
attacks as retaliatory strikes by the Islamists. The scale and coordination of
Sri Lankan blasts reminded South Asians of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks carried out
by Pakistan’s LeT. Steadily increasing death toll heightened the apprehensions
of veritable linkages of the indigenous radical groups with international
Islamist groups.
Minutes after the blasts while Sri Lankan media
and government refused to comment on the perpetrators of terror, international
media is abuzz with reports of Sri Lankan government receiving an alert as
early as April 4th. The alert read, “A foreign intelligence agency has reported that NTJ (National Thowheeth
Jamaath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches
and Indian High Commission in Colombo”. A day after blasts, Sri Lankan
Telecommunications minister confirmed that the intelligence agencies were aware
of the alert. The massive scale of the devastation despite the warning
underscores the failure of the Sri Lankan security agencies. While people have
been quick to point out fingers at LTTE who were infamous for the suicide
bombings, they had little history of attacking Christians. Given, the scale of
the attacks on Churches and by consequence Christians, police agencies though
tight-lipped have indirectly attributed this development to the surge of the
radicalisation of Muslims in the island. Despite the populist tendency of
smearing muck on the Sinhalese Buddhists who are known to have fierce rivalry
with the Muslims in the island for the attacks. All the initial reports
suggested the involvement of suicide bombers. Fearing a backlash from minority
Muslim community, after initial reluctance, Sri Lankan officials acknowledged
the role of indigenous Islamist group, NTJ in the attacks.
The colossal intelligence failure despite
tip-offs epitomised the domestic political fissures. Substantiating popular
perception, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe admitted that he was deliberately
kept out of the loop. It now emerges that India, has issued three alerts to Sri
Lanka. The first one on April 4th, second on the day before the
blasts and third just hours before the attacks. While it is unmissable that
brewing political slugfest turned Sri Lanka a fertile ground for the onslaught
of Islamic terror, the dastardly bomb blasts indicate that South Asia is being
swept by the wave of radicalisation. In fact, Indian agencies issued an alert
to Sri Lanka after they stumbled upon the video recordings of Zahran Hashim
while they were investigating the links of IS Coimbatore.
After the first blast at Shangri-La Hotel, the police
have identified Islamic extremist Moulvi Zahran Hashim as the mastermind behind
these attacks. Sri Lankan officials refrained from officially divulging role of
the religious preacher Hashim, he is closely associated with NTJ. He is widely
popular among Muslim youth for his YouTube lectures. Hours after attacks, News
agency CNN confirmed his plans of attacking Indian High Commission at Colombo.
He shot into prominence in 2017 for his derogatory remarks on Buddhism. Though
his speeches escaped the scrutiny of the Sri Lankan government, he always abetted
terror. On Tuesday, IS claimed responsibility for the Sri Lankan blasts and
released a video where Hashim is swearing oath of allegiance to IS to the seven
suicide bombers identified in the blast (3). The latest reports indicate that Hashim
travels regularly to India by boats and that most of his videos for
indoctrinating youth are being uploaded from India. From the available
evidences it is emerging that NTJ has close links to Islamist organisations in
South India especially Tamilnadu. After the IS claims it is obvious that Sri
Lankan Islamist group has links with overseas Islamist organisations.
Targeted attacks on Churches on Easter Sunday,
marked the resurgence of ethnic hatred. Ever since the end of civil war in
2009, the island is witness to the tenuous communal fissures marked by
emergence of chauvinistic Buddhist outfits like BBA and the mushrooming of
Islamic radical outfits. Since 2012 clashes between the Buddhist majority and
the Muslim who constitute 10% of the Sri Lanka’s roughly 22 million population
became common place. Christians were never under attack. But the latest episode
of Islamic terror left them vulnerable.
After 2009, Sri Lankan economy limped back to
normalcy, registered an average growth rate of 5.8%, and became a middle-income
country. It managed to extricate people from poverty as well. A relatively
stable domestic atmosphere improved the economic prospects of the country. Sri
Lanka is now becoming increasingly popular among the western tourists. These
gruesome attacks besides, exposing dissonance in political establishment
inflicted a huge blow to the tourism industry. Despite their apologies to the
terror victims for the intelligence failure, President Sirisena and Prime
Minister Wickremesinghe are bound to pay heavy price in the upcoming elections.
Sinhalese Buddhists who are firmly behind the Rajapaksa family might romp home
victory. Besides, the political ramifications, the island nation which is
battling the burden of mounting Chinese debts, tenuous communal harmony is now
confronted with the formidable challenge of countering the intemperate rise of
Islamic radicalisation.
The terror attacks in Sri Lanka blew to the
smithereens, the theories which advocate inequalities in society and
“Islamaphobia” seed terrorism. Nine of the Sri Lankan suicide bombers belonged
to upper middle class and are highly educated. This development added more heft
to the new prospect of the educated and affluent youth succumbing to the tide
of the radical Islamism.
Sri Lankan attack which left 359( revised to 253) dead and over
500 severely injured poses a fresh challenge to the South Asia which is fighting
the menace of terrorism. The rising wave of Islamic terror is threatening to
consume the peace and security of the region. The twist in the tale came after
IS claimed responsibility for the attack raising doubts about oversubscribed
concept of decimation of IS in Iraq and Syria. Clearly, while a group might
face extinction, the ideology will continue to thrive. The indoctrinating
extremist ideology which continues to reap havoc on the humanity can be
exterminated with the collaborative efforts of all nations. Unfortunately, the
obstinate approach of China in proscribing the terror perpetrators despite
unabated terror in South Asia, is setting a wrong precedent. By giving free
pass to mothership of terror, radical Islamist outfits are sufficiently
emboldened. Given the enormity of growing radicalisation and underlying threat
to India’s security, New Delhi must step up counter terrorism efforts to curb
the menace of terror with like-minded countries.
@ Copyrights reserved.
