16 June 2020 12:00 am
By Yoshitha Perera
Zaharan Hashim and Abdul Razik, the current General Secretary of Ceylon Thowheed Jamaath (CTJ) had commenced an organisation earlier named Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamaath (SLTG) together and presently CTJ is spreading extremist practices across the country, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thera informed the PCoI into Easter Sunday attacks yesterday.
Testifying before the Commission, he said that the hardline Islamist group SLTG had splintered off into two organisations after sometime, as National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) which was led by Zaharan Hashim and as Ceylon Thowheed Jamaath (CTJ), which has been currently functioning across the country.
“In an interview given to a leading newspaper in 2016, CTJ General Secretary Abdul Razik disclosed that there were 10,000 registered members and 50,000 non-registered members in their organisation. He also said there were nine leaders and 90 branches across the country,” Gnanasara Thero informed the Commission.
Submitting a letter received by him in February 2020, Gnanasara Thero said that in a recent update Islamic extremist academics have started instructing school children within the school premises.
“According to the letter, Zahira College in Weligama is conducting lectures on Wahabism and Principal of the school M.H.M. Inayatullah, has allowed graduates of Naleemiah Institute, Beruwala to conduct these lectures inside the school,” he said.
He also said that within the last five years around 8,000 non-Muslims had been converted to Islam and the BBS had records of the names of over 1,000 such persons who converted.