India, safe haven for Zahran and his associates: Ex-SIS director

• Difference between capability and preparedness
• Intelligence report mentions Indian High Commission as a definite target

By Yoshitha Perera   

India was a safe haven for National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) leader Zahran Hashim and his associates, former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena yesterday informed the PCoI probing the Easter Sunday attacks.    

Mr. Jayawardena said Zahran and his associates had travelled to India several times and had stayed there before the attacks.   

He said the SIS had not received details on their preparedness to conduct an attack, through the foreign intelligence received on April 4, 2019.   
“There is a huge difference between capability and preparedness of conducting an attack. The particular foreign intelligence report had only mentioned about Zahran’s capability of conducting an attack. It had also mentioned the Indian High Commission as a definite target and the Catholic Churches across the country as soft targets,” he said. “According to the foreign intelligence report there was a huge area to cover. The report had mentioned that ‘important churches’ may be attacked and when you say important churches there can be more than 100 in the country. So the SIS decided to develop the particular intelligence without sending it directly to other relevant authorities.”

Mr. Jayawardena said the SIS had not received prior information on the collecting of weapons by Zahran’s team and pointed out that the SIS had only received information that Zahran had conducted weapons training to a selected group of young Muslims in Nuwara Eliya on August 5, 2018.   

“This didn’t mean we ignored the particular foreign intelligence. There was no evidence that Zahran has tested a bomb. The first information regarding a dry run was only reported on April 17, 2019, after receiving the the foreign intelligence report,” he said. 

• Indian High Commission as a definite target and Catholic Churches as soft targets
• According to the foreign intelligence report there was a huge area to cover