Easter Sunday carnage : Interest groups question why crucial information on extremists was ignored by authorities

An individual lighting candles to commemorate his loved ones at the Katuwapitiya mass grave site (Pic by Pradeep Pathirana)

Taslim said that there was ample opportunity for the then government to investigate on the explosives that were unearthed

The fact that the actual mastermind behind this attack is still at large poses a risk to all other citizens of this country

Revelations made at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry indicate that Jameel had been accused of various suspicious activities

Six years have elapsed since the deadly Easter Sunday carnage left a permanent scar on the country’s political and national security domain. Despite the appointment of various commissions of inquiry under successive regimes, the actual mastermind behind the attack is allegedly still at large. However, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake recently promised to reveal the names of the real culprits behind the Easter Sunday carnage by April 21. Even though Opposition factions scrutinised the President for making such statements, activists and interest groups who had been following revelations made at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry argue that the attacks could have been averted had the intelligence services acted upon this network of extremists, their whereabouts, associates and other information that was already available prior to the attacks.

Taslim’s story 

Mohammed Razzak Taslim, from Danagama, Mawanella is a social activist who had been committed to uplift livelihoods of people in his community. Since 1997 he had been working for various political parties, but when it comes to social service, party politics was no barrier for him. He says that he hadn’t worked for personal benefits, but had been loyal to certain politicians who promised to develop his hometown. In 2015, Taslim was the owner of a farm with over 50 animals including goats and cattle. It was during this time that a former Cabinet minister during the Yahapalana regime invited him to be his coordinating secretary.

“I have worked tirelessly to strengthen communal harmony within my community,” Taslim said in an interview with the Daily Mirror. “In 2018, somewhere in October or November, certain Buddha statues were destroyed in Mawanella. We suspected that it was the beginning of a disaster. On December 26, 2018, this minister called me an informed that two individuals were caught in connection with destroying Buddha statues and that they were being held by residents in Didula. I immediately went to the scene and they were two Muslim individuals. Once they were taken to the Kegalle Police station we discovered that there had been four individuals who had been involved in destroying Buddha statues and that there were 17 others in this network. The other two individuals who destroyed Buddha statues went missing,” he recalled. 

Taslim said that a team from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was deployed to Kegalle to investigate into these incidents. “Around January 2019 a senior officer from the Kegalle Police Station requested whether I would be able to assist in this investigation. The investigations revealed that people from many parts of the country were connected to the vandalising and destruction of Buddha statues. After tracing phone records, the CID team was able to identify three main suspects behind the Buddha statue incident,” he added. 

He recalled how the team of CID officers reached Puttalam on the trail to identify the main suspects. The investigation revealed how certain individuals had obtained fake addresses and blindfolded authorities to iron out any suspicious activities. Taslim recalled how the trail led them to a farmhouse in Wanathawilluwa, off the Mannar-Puttalam road, believed to be the main hiding place of the suspects. “We learned that people were banned from entering this farmhouse and those in the vicinity declined to direct us to the location. During this entire mission the officers guaranteed my safety and I placed my trust in them. When we entered the house I realised one main suspect. When we asked them about the two missing individuals, he claimed that they last spoke to him on December 26. But the phone records indicated that they had called them twice on a later date as well. When we walked into the house we discovered five tents. There was a pair of shoes and two other individuals with mammoties etc. The CID officers handcuffed all these individuals and started questioning them. After about an hour two others came with food. They two were handcuffed,” Taslim recalled. 

The team had discovered nine sealed cans of acid used to make bombs. Other items discovered from this premises included three cans of C4 powder which were buried underground, 99 detonators, strings of bulbs, measuring cylinders and other materials. He said that an extensive search operation was launched with the help of the Army and sniffer dogs deployed to the farm located a few kilometres away from the safe house discovered two more shotguns. 

Taslim believes that even though he assisted the CID team under the radar, the suspects may have identified him. 

The gunshot that changed his life 

On March 9, 2019 (a month before the Easter Sunday carnage), Taslim was shot in his head at point blank range. Two individuals had entered his house, reached his bedroom and shot him in the head, with hopes of taking him off the trail of investigations. But, miraculously or otherwise, Taslim survived this fatal gunshot injury. “In February 2019, I got a call from someone who wanted to purchase goats from my farm. He asked me to come to the town. There were two of them and I think they wanted to confirm my identity,” he said. 

The right side of his head is still caved in as a result of surgeries he had to undergo following the injury. “There was a bowl full of blood,” said one of Taslim’s relatives who recalled that dreadful day. The bullet had pierced through his head and it was a vital piece of evidence to trace the two suspects who were subsequently arrested. Taslim said that he stepped down from the investigation after the explosives and other items were unearthed from Wanathawilluwa. “Even though they asked me to join them for an operation in Kattankudy I declined their offer because my wife became extremely worried,” reminisced Taslim. 

It had taken close to four and a half years for Taslim to recover to his present state. However, he still walks about with a limp and his left arm is paralyzed. Taslim cannot run around and engage in a profession anymore due to his disabilities. Now he depends on donations, the Rs. 5000 he receives as a beneficiary of Aswesuma and Rs. 7500 as a disability relief provided by the government. Taslim is a father of four and three of his children are still schooling; which means that he needs to raise money to look after his family. Initially the then government had supported him financially for assisting in investigations. Apart from that, two policemen have been deployed to provide protection to his house following the attack, but Taslim claims that such a guard is not necessary for him anymore. “They accompany me everywhere and as a result my family members had to sacrifice their privacy. I live off what others provide me with and I have to take care of these police officers from that money,” he added. 

In order to ensure a speedy recovery, doctors have recommend that Taslim should be on continuous physiotherapy. He said it is a miracle that he recalls all incidents prior to the attack. It costs around Rs. 10,000 to purchase his medicines for a month and he said that physiotherapy is also an additional expense. Due to heavy maintenance costs, Taslim had sold off his farm. Right now he doesn’t have a stable source of income except for donations from well-wishers. 

Speaking about the evidence that was revealed prior to the Easter Sunday carnage, Taslim said that there was ample opportunity for the then government to investigate on the explosives that were unearthed and the network of Muslim extremists who were causing chaos around the country. “The incidents in Ampara, Digana and Mawanella were carried out by this network of extremists and it was their tactic to get more people involved in violent activities,” he alleged. “It is sad that over 200 lives were lost as a result of these deadly attacks. On the one hand I’m glad that those 99 detonators were discovered prior to the attacks. Otherwise the entire country would have been a bloodbath,” he added.

Following the attack, Taslim had been offered various opportunities to leave the country on grounds of personal protection, but he said that he’s not worried about his life. “Why should I leave my house or my country fearing my own life when all what I have done is helped the state to identify a group of extremists,” he questioned. Taslim denies the fact that the attack was an act of political revenge because he is confident that there’s nobody to be called an enemy. “I have worked for various political parties and the entire community in my neighbourhood have no issues with me,” he continued. 

Taslim said that the entire Muslim community had to endure psychological trauma as a result of the Easter Sunday carnage, but added that he was the only Muslim individual who had to undergo a physical attack and is still recovering from the injuries. “I have demanded a compensation of Rs. 50 million from the incumbent government. That’s all that I am asking for. I hope that this government would solve this issue once and for all,” Taslim said.

The missing links 

However, the lapses in investigating this network of extremists and the failure to act upon prior warnings saw the Easter Sunday carnage claiming the lives of over 250 individuals while injuring many others. Despite having several Commissions of Inquiry, successive regimes had failed to further investigate revelations made at these commissions to identify the actual mastermind behind the attack. These observations were made by the research arm at the Centre for Society and Religion. 

In a detailed report, the researchers have outlined at least five points that have been missed during these investigations and at a recent media briefing they questioned as to why such crucial information was ignored. These include;

• Details regarding Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameel (herein referred to as Jameel) the suicide bomber who died at the explosion in Tropical Inn, Dehiwela
• Details regarding Abuhind, a close associate of Zaharan 
• Details on Pulasthini Mahendran alias Sarah Jasmine believed to have escaped following the explosion at Sainthamaradu
• Details on facts revealed by Hansir Asad Mowlana on Channel 4 
• Failure to act upon pre-warnings 

Speaking at the media briefing held on April 16 in Colombo in connection with the Easter Sunday bombings, Fr. Rohan Silva, Director at the Centre for Society and Religion said that they had, for the past six years, voiced for the rights of victims and families who were affected by the Easter Sunday. He said that when days draw close to April 21 various individuals would come out and indicate that even though the Easter Sunday carnage is a tool for them to gain certain mileage, the investigations would never end to determine the mastermind. “The fact that the actual mastermind behind this attack is still at large poses a risk to all other citizens of this country. Allegations levelled against intelligence services need to be investigated immediately. Therefore it is important to bring this mastermind and whoever who had assisted in this attack to book,” Fr. Silva added. 

Revelations made at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry indicate that Jameel had been accused of various suspicious activities. Investigative journalist Tharindu Jayawardena, who is part of CSR’ research team, said that since 2015, intelligence officials had been keeping an eye on this individual, but neither the state intelligence service, military intelligence unit nor the Terrorist Investigation Department had no clue about the attack. “They in fact failed to avert the attack,” he added. 

According to the management at the Taj Samudra Hotel, it had been a usual procedure to submit a list of names of guests who had arrived at the hotel to the state intelligence service and President’s Security Unit. “Jameel checks in to the hotel on the evening of April 20 and it is possible that his name was included on the list of guests. If the intelligence services had been keeping an eye on this individual then the failure to investigate his whereabouts is a point to investigate further,” Jayawardena added. 

Jayawardena further claimed that intelligence services have failed to investigate as to why Jameel’s ID number was not included in the hotel’s data system despite his check-in, his whereabouts and whom he met after he left his room after checking in on April 20 and returned on April 21 morning, who would have called him between 8.51-8.54 am on April 21 as seen on CCTV footage, who is Infaz who visited the Taj Samudra hotel on April 17 and whether there had been other suspicious individuals visiting the hotel from time to time, whether Jameel sent a pre-recorded voice message to his wife on April 21 indicating that he is going on Hajj pilgrimage, why this number was deleted from his wife’s phone, what happened to CCTV footage obtained from his house between April 19 and April 21, claims from TID officers indicating that the footage would have been erased during investigations, investigations on individuals who visited Jameel at his house and various other facts that have been missed or ignored. 

The document further elaborates as to why the state failed to investigate on clips recorded by Zaharan and his group, how these clips were recovered from Kalmunai, who would have taken these clips there, how the banner seen in his last video was discovered from Kalmunai on April 26, investigation on Mohamed Ilham who’s wife and three children died during the explosion at Mahawila Gardens, Dematagoda while claiming the lives of three officers at the Colombo Crimes Division, discrepancies on information regarding the explosion at Sainthamaradu, details on the number of individuals killed during this explosion, why one police officer indicated that 16 individuals had been killed while another claimed that 17 individuals were killed even before post-mortem reports were obtained, whether it was an attempt to indicate that Sarah Jasmine too had died and various other revelations made at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry. 

Explosives unearthed from the farmhouse in Wanathawilluwa in January 2019. Taslim (wearing a beige shirt) is also seen in the photograph