Easter Attacks: Elusive Mastermind and Political Chessboard

Sri Lanka was shocked when a series of bombings ripped through on Easter Sunday in April 2019 since it had been lulled in a sense of complacency after the end of 30-year-old cruel war against the LTTE in 2009 and did not have any experience of Islamic terrorism.

In the attack, the perpetrators deliberately targeted foreigners and the Catholic and Christian communities in the Buddhist-majority country.

The attack that rocked the country took place towards the tail end of the Yahapalana government. The country’s economy suffered with the tourism sector dropping to its lowest ebb. Since then, a presidential commission, two committees of inquiries and a parliamentary select committee were appointed to find the actual culprit behind it despite ISIS claiming responsibility and its local arm National Thowheeth Jamaat even releasing a video of the suicide bombers pledging their allegiance to the ISIS prior to the execution of bomb blasts.

The series of bomb blasts was also blamed on security lapses on the part of the then government. It was criticized for not taking action based on intelligence provided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in India regarding the impending attack.

The Yahapalana government was voted out the same year, and the next government proceeded with litigation. Subsequent investigations, the court ordered former President Maithripala Sirisena to pay Rs. 100 million from his personal funds to family members of victims who brought the civil case before the court. The police chief, two top intelligence officials and the secretary to the ministry of defence at the time were ordered to pay Rs. 210 million rupees.

The Catholic church led by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith demanded justice since majority victims were Catholics. Cardinal Ranjith insisted on further investigations to trace what he always called ‘Mastermind’ behind the attack. Since the Catholics form a sizable chunk of the vote base , the Cardinal’s call for the tracing of the elusive mastermind gained traction among those voters. It became a political football, so to speak vote bank politics.

The current government led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake secured power with the promise to launch a fresh probe into the attacks. He announced a probe on October 8, 2024 into 2019 Easter bombings.

The matter has again begun to dominate news following Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader Udaya Gammanpila made fresh remarks about the purported moves to arrest former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and then State Intelligence Service (SIS) Chief Maj. Gen. Suresh Salley.

According to him, that is to be done through recording a statement from Azad Maulana whom Channel 4 had introduced as a whistle-blower in its documentary on the Easter Sunday attack.

After such an attack, Sri Lanka may be the only country in the world that focuses the debate away from the main issue-religious extremism. It is not only the Catholics who got killed but many foreign nationals including Americans and Chinese. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are two leading international investigative bodies that carried out investigations in the aftermath of the Easter attacks. Justice should prevail for those foreigners who died for no fault of theirs. It is true that the findings by these investigative bodies helped in dismantling the network of Zaharan Hashim who led the suicide squad. It is now important to place on record the findings of these two leading organizations to know the truth.

The otherwise mastermind will be elusive and political victimization continues.