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Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the proposed counter terrorism law is tough on ordinary citizens by having provisions that can be used to stifle political dissent and the freedom of expression.  The former strongman president in a statement yesterday said the new law is designed to treat terrorists with the utmost leniency to the extent where its actual effect will be that of protecting and giving encouragement to terrorists – not countering terrorism.

"Our Penal Code prescribes the death penalty for killing just one person, but under the proposed counter terrorism law, a terrorist convicted of killing hundreds of or even thousands of people can only be given a maximum sentence of life imprisonment," he said.

Rajapaksa noted that the draft counter terrorism law that has been presented to Parliament has encountered opposition from political and media activists on the grounds that that the way it defines the term 'terrorism' leaves room for legitimate political and trade union action as well as the dissemination of information and protection of sources by the media to be labeled as terrorist activity. 

However, Rajapaksa credits the former UNP government that introduced the Prevention of Terrorism act in 1979 as a tough law. 

"There is no argument about the fact that the Prevention of Terrorism Act introduced by the UNP government in 1979 is a tough law. But we have had to deal with the most ruthless terrorists the world has ever seen and that would not have been possible if not for such laws," he noted.

An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the Government-owned Litro Gas Company was unexpectedly postponed last week, due to an alleged bomb scare at the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC).

The main objective of the EGM was to remove the current board of directors of Litro Gas, in which SLIC holds a 96 percent stake. A new board of directors was to be appointed at the EGM.

Officials are now raising questions about whether the bomb scare at SLIC was orchestrated to sabotage the EGM and keep the old board of Litro Gas in place for the time being.

The Sunday Observer learns that security units were called in to the SLIC to deal with the bomb scare. Although troops discovered a suspicious object at the premises, it was revealed that it was in fact an empty tin wrapped up to look like a bomb.

The incident delayed work at the SLIC by about an hour. Later an internal probe found that the plan was to disrupt the extraordinary general meeting of Litro Gas that was to take place that day. The Litro Gas headquarters is in the SLIC building.

Two months ago, Litro Gas, the controversy-ridden state owned LNG provider was taken over by the Ministry of Finance, by gazette notification. Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera urged the old board of directors to resign, but none of them had done so, highly placed sources told the Sunday Observer.

Minister Samaraweera called for resignations after probing financial irregularities within the company. Last week’s EGM was a last ditch effort to remove the board of directors. However, following the bomb scare the appointment of the new board members was disrupted.

The Sunday Observer also learns that a mud-slinging campaign began against Minister Samaraweera after he called for the resignation of the Board of Directors of Litro Gas Terminal Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. Several websites have been used to publish articles to discredit the Finance Minister, it is learnt.

In Parliament two weeks ago, UNP MP Hirunika Premachandra said Litro Gas Managing Director Muditha Peiris and Director Lakmali Hapuarachchi were running a dictatorship in the company.

Premachandran said a large number of complaints was forwarded to the company stating that the gas was not suitable for use.

She added that Litro Gas has made losses to the tune of Rs 3.1 million by providing gas cylinders free to politicians. (Daily News)

A joint federation of several Muslim organisations and the Sri Lanka Muslim Civil Society (SLMCS), together with a representative gathering of Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu and Islamic clergy, Security Force chiefs and leading civil activists, staged a three-hour long 'Rise up for Solidarity Peace Vigil' at Independence Square on Saturday morning (05). 

Hundreds of people had gathered to vehemently and unequivocally condemned the brutal, barbaric acts of the terrorists that resulted in the death of hundreds of people on Easter Sunday. After offering prayers, they vowed to join hands with the Security Forces and other governmental authorities to bring back the peaceful co-existence of all communities.
 
Expressing solidarity with all bereaved families and injured people, Muslim Civil Society Activists publicly condemned the brutal slaying of innocent people by disgruntled members of a misguided group and pronounced that no religion has preached these types of killings to reach spiritual attainments whatsoever. 

Buddhist monks, Christian, Catholic and Hindu priests, as well as civil activists from all faiths commended the restraint displayed by all Sri Lankans by not resorting to violent retributions that could have led to more bloodbaths. They also praised the tireless contribution of all members of the Armed Forces and the Police to ensure the peace and stability in the country. 

The occasion, themed on 'Humanity Beyond Religion' was addressed by Ven Madampagama Assaji Thero, Dr A. T Ariyaratne of 'Sarvodaya', Hindu Kurukkal and leading Moulawis and Muslim leaders.

Placard holding activists, including Muslim women, underlined the importance of being united at this critical juncture. Some of the placards read, 'Terrorism Has No Religion', 'Family of One Nation', 'Together We are Sri Lankans', 'Rise, Resist, United' etc.

Extensive cordon and search operations conducted by the Army and its sister services across the country with the assistance of the Police are continuing, Army press release said. 

In Pulmodai, Army troops together with the Navy, STF and Police on Wednesday (02), cordoned a suspicious area in a surprise operation and recovered 89 detonators, 32 pieces of det chords (each 16 inch), 8 Water Gel Tubes, 2 pieces of detonator chargers and a few other warlike items after arresting one suspect. 20 Gajaba Regiment troops of the 622 Brigade under the 62 Division conducted the raid on the location with the support of naval, STF and Police personnel.

Meanwhile, 143 Brigade troops of the 14 Division under the Security Force Headquarters - West in the past 48 hours during their cordon and search operations arrested more than 17 suspects from Kurunegala, Wariyapola, Chilaw, Wanatavilluwa, Puttalam, Madurankuliya, Iranavila, Eluwankulam and Galgamuwa areas.

Those troops recovered 4 vehicle number plates from Madurankuliya and arrested 2 suspects for being unable to furnish the reason for possession of those number plates. They had been kept hidden inside his shop when the troops together with Policemen swooped on the premises. Similarly, troops arrested one Arabic teacher and four others who were  in possession of machetes, 2 swords, several mobile phones, photos taken in Police uniforms, ISIS video clips and literature, etc. All suspects were handed over to the Police for further investigations.

Meanwhile, 12 Division Headquarters troops in Hambantota town and its suburbs recovered 2 swords, placed hidden inside a drinking water well. Similarly, Army troops during cordon and search operations in Moneragala and Hambantota areas found a few Army uniforms, 2 swords and packets of cannabis.

8 Gemunu Watch troops, following intelligence information, entered a Jumma Mosque in Moneragala and took into custody a stock of ISIS literature and a single cab painted in camouflage colours. 3 suspects were arrested and handed over to the Moneragala troops by the Police.

9 Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment, 23 Gajaba Regiment, 18 Gemunu Watch and 3 Sri Lanka National Guard troops of the 121 and 122 Brigades of the 12 Division are currently engaged in these operations on the directions of the General Officer Commanding, 12 Division of the Security Force Headquarters - Central (SFHQ-Cen).

Meanwhile, 11 Division troops in Kandy under the SFHQ-Cen in the past couple of days have been conducting cordon and search operations in the general areas of Kandy, Nawalapitiya, Gampola, Peradeniya, Akurana, Katugastota, Madawala and other areas on the directions of the General Officer Commanding, 11 Division of the SFHQ-Cen.

11 Division troops during those cordon and search operations inspected 603 houses and arrested 27 suspects and recovered two swords, one bore gun with 10 ammunition, one air rifle, three safety fuses, NTJ books and documents, 4 NTJ banners, 17 NTJ T-shirts, 5 NTJ recruiting applications, six fake birth certificates, 6 fake NICs, 11 fake passports, 11 fake vehicle number plates, one fake driving license, six suspicious bank slips, sixteen mobile phones, eighteen sim cards, three memory cards, one motor bike, seventy-six NTJ CDs, four video cameras, fifteen cassette recorders, one lanchakku and two boxes (600) blood collecting syringes, unavailable in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, troops of the Security Force Headquarters - West (SFHQ-West) during Thursday (2) launched 8 cordon and search operations in Ragama, Aluthgama, Weligama, Moratuwa, Kelaniya and suburbs in the past 24 hours.

Major General Sathyapriya Liyanage, Commander, Security Forces - West went to Ragama Basilica Church on Wednesday in order to ensure security to the premises. On his instructions, troops with sniffing dogs inspected the entire premises and cleared the area after deploying more troops.

Furthermore, troops of the 58 Division conducted cordon and search operations in the general areas of Darga Town, Aluthgama, Weligama and Red Cross housing scheme in Moratuwa on Wednesday (02) and arrested eight suspects with a stock of sim cards, forged National Identity Cards, swords, along with 8 suspects. Suspects were handed over to the Police, Army said.

Similarly, Army troops of the Security Force Headquarters - East (SFHQ-E) once again together with the Police conducted one more thorough search in Samanthurai Town area and recovered one binocular, two shot guns, twenty-three rounds of shot gun ammunition, ten shot gun ammunition empty cases, four wire brushes, one cleaning rod, twenty-eight rounds of 16mm ammunition, thirty-one iron balls, four swords, two knives and two axes.

The Saudi Arabian government is said to have arrested Maulana Rila, the brother-in-law of Zahran Hashim - the mastermind of the Sri Lankan blasts on Easter Sunday. The arrest was made with the help of the Indian intelligence who provided information last week. Rila's colleague, identified as Shahnawaj, has also been arrested, reports Hindustan Times.

It is learned that Rila was close to Zahran Hashim, who was a key operative of the National Thowheed Jamaath. The NTJ had carried out the bombing targeting churches and high-end hotels in Sri Lanka. Zahran Hashim died at the Shangri-La hotel during the attack on April 21.

Two days after the bombings, the ISIS, through its news agency al-Amaq, claimed responsibility for the attack saying that it was revenge for the mosque shooting which took place in New Zealand in March. They said that the bombings were a "Bloody gift to you".

India and Saudi Arabia are working together to dig deeper and find out if there is any connection between the men arrested and the IS modules in Kasargod, Kerala.

India had previous intel regarding the bombings and had warned Sri Lanka on four separate occasions - April 4, April 10, 16 and 20. They also called up the Sri Lankan authorities just two hours before the bombings to inform them of the three targeted churches in the country.

After the bombings, the Taj Samudra, which was one of the intended targets, was asked to instal more CCTV cameras and amp up security since one of the suicide bombers was unaccounted for. The HT report states that the bomber, Abdul Latif Mohammed Jamil, could not trigger the bomb when he entered the hotel.

His bomb later detonated at Tropical Inn in Dehiwala killing a couple who couldn't escape on time.

Even though President Maithripala Sirisena has openly said that he was unaware of the bomb attacks carried out by Islamic extremists, many facts suggest otherwise.

Both the National Intelligence Service and State Intelligence Service (SIS) are directly answerable to the President as he acts as the Commander and also the Defense Minister. The President not being aware of what the Defense Secretary and IGP knew is problematic.

The President directly works with State Intelligence Service director Nilantha Jayawardena, and according to reports, the President has been obtaining information pertaining to the national security from the director of State Intelligence Unit. As a matter of fact, they have worked very closely.

Not only the State Intelligence Service director but also the head of National Intelligence Service Sisira Mendis, on April 4, also informed the President and Defense Secretary about the terror attacks. (according to a foreign intelligence report)

On April 9, Mr. Mendis had informed the IGP of this matter, and subsequently, the latter had conveyed the information to four Senior DIGs. Senior DIG Priyalal Dasanayake had taken necessary action according to the information he received. The letter circulated through social media after the Easter Sunday bombings on April 21 was issued by Priyalal Dasanayake.

Bother the National Intelligence Service and the State Intelligence Service report to the Defense Minister and the President is in charge of the Defense Ministry.

The President, as the Defense Minister, not being aware of warnings about the Easter Sunday attacks, when other officials of the Defense Ministry knew it, is in a way a joke.

After the political crisis in last October, Prime Minister and State Minister of Defense had been excluded from the Security Council. The IGP had not been invited to the Security Council.   

However, MPs representing the opposition, who are not members of the Security Council, had been invited to the meeting.

Usually, the President, Prime Minister, State or Deputy Defense Minister, IGP, ministry secretaries,  Chief of Defense Staff, Commanders of Tri-forces and heads of State and National Intelligence Units, attend Security Council meetings. But the President inviting MPs of the opposition for Security Council meetings is not permissible.

President’s anti-drug programs and Maudush mania

Even though the Security Council should predominantly pay attention to the national security, the President has reportedly paid more attention to eradicating the drug menace and catching underworld leader Makandure Madush. Eradicating the drug menace is undeniably important. But, when it comes to national security, it’s not only about the war on drugs.  

Five minutes to talk about national security

The President, who gives priority to talk about the drug menace, usually gives only a short period of time for the Defense Secretary to discuss other matters; usually it is limited to five-six minutes. The President had reportedly said the Defense Secretary that the former is receiving information about the national security from Nilantha Jayawardena.

In this context, the fact that the President got to know about the Easter Sunday attacks via Facebook, is completely unacceptable.

When it comes to resolving national level crisis, leaders having personal grudges with each other is unacceptable; but we have become so unlucky to witness leaders’ political drama.

Drug kingpin Makandure Madush was deported from Dubai this morning (05), and was taken into the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) upon his arrival at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), the Police Media spokesperson said. 

Madush had arrived on Sri Lankan airlines flight UL - 226, at around 5.00 a.m. this morning, Police sources said.

31 persons along with Makandure Madush were arrested by Dubai police at a party on the 5th of February.

Bitcoin played a role in staging the Easter Sunday suicide bombing in Sri Lanka that killed 253 civilians, according to Israeli blockchain intelligence firm Whitestream.

The agency revealed that the ISIS used Canada-based payment gateway CoinPayments to convert bitcoins to fiat money. The firm identified large scale transactions between the wallets that ISIS used to raise contributions and the bitcoin accounts held by CoinPayments.

Whitestream found that the balances in the payment company’s wallets surged from $500,000 to $4.5 million just one day before the Easter attacks. The firm added that the CoinPayments’ balances dropped back to $500,000 right after the deadly attacks took place. The payment company in question admitted that they had processed high-volume transactions. However, it denied having any knowledge about the money’s links with terrorist groups.

“CoinPayments admits that their wallet was involved but denied that it is connected to ISIS,” Whitestream said. “It’s possible that the company is not aware of the usage of their wallets, perhaps because ISIS uses straw companies [to] transfer the money.”

The ISIS-Bitcoin ConnectionWhitestream, founded by Itsik Levy and Uri Bornstein, confirmed that it was monitoring ISIS-linked bitcoin wallets from the past two years. The firm eventually maximized its focus on one bitcoin wallet that was receiving donations actively over different periods. It succeeded in verifying two transactions originated from the bitcoin wallet address listed on the ISIS fundraising website.

Levy said they were able to trace the transactions back to CoinPayments, indicating that the payment processing company knowingly/unknowingly was facilitating the ISIS funding campaign.

“Our assumption is that the terrorist organization probably possesses many bitcoin addresses through CoinPayments, with every donation sent to a different address,” Levy told Globes. “On the day before the Sri Lanka terror attacks, we identified two relatively big transactions at this address with bitcoins worth about $9,800.”

Whitestream in February had named CoinPayments for facilitating bitcoin-enabled donation campaigns for Hamas, a Palestine-based Sunni-Islamist fundamentalist group. Meanwhile, the firm believed that cryptocurrency-based payment and exchange companies were working in a largely unregulated environment. It was making it easier for terrorist organizations to exploit them for financing their attacks around the globe.

Sri Lankan authorities have urged the public to surrender swords and large knives amid heightened security concerns following the deadly Easter Sunday bombings last month.

The Media Unit of Sri Lanka Police said the public has time until Sunday to handover any swords and knives at the nearest police stations.

The police also requested not to park vehicles after 1.00 p.m. on Sunday near any schools in Colombo as special search operations were scheduled to be conducted in those areas.

Law enforcement authorities have seized a large number of weapons from various parts of the island nation.

The call came as investigations into the deadly bombings continue whilst law enforcement authorities have recovered a large number of weapons from various parts of the country.

The final rites of the sixteen people who died during explosions which took place inside a house in Sainthamaruthu, Kalmunai was held without religious rituals on Wednesday under Police intervention.

The final rites of these persons were conducted in this manner in accordance to appeals put forward by the Muslim priests in the area.

A special joint search operation was carried out by the Sri Lanka army, police and the special task force on April 26 in the Sainthamaruthu area.

They had to engage in a fierce gun battle with a group of militants who barricaded themselves inside a house and later killed themselves using explosives, which resulted in the death of six children.

One of the six terrorists found dead was identified as Mohamed Niyas, known to the authorities as a prominent member of the National Tawheed Jamath. He was later identified by the Army as the brother-in-law of the alleged ringleader of the Easter Sunday attacks, Zahran Hashim.

The United Kingdom’s Minister for Security and Economic Crime, Ben Wallace pledged support to revive Sri Lanka’s tourism industry that was devastated after the Easter Sunday’s suicide bombings. 42 foreign nationals lost their lives including 8 British citizens.

“I have discussed our current travel advice and been clear that we hope to see the Sri Lankan tourism industry return to full strength,”

Wallace was quoted in a statement from the British High Commission. "We will do all we can to help the Sri Lankan authorities with this," Wallace said after a two-day visit to Sri Lanka.

Wallace met President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, other government ministers, military and religious leaders, senior government officials and leading figures from the Sri Lankan tourism sector.

He discussed the impact on Sri Lanka of the attacks on three churches and three hotels carried out by Islamists extremists.

Wallace also discussed how to address the security threat, identify what further support the UK can provide and received an update on the ongoing investigations, the statement said.

He visited the Cinnamon Grand and Shangri-La Hotels, sites where British nationals were killed in the attacks and met hotel staff, and visited the St Anthony’s Church in Colombo, and laid wreaths at all three sites.

 "The attack on innocent worshippers and tourists sought to sow division and hate and it must not be allowed to succeed," Wallace said.

"In times like this friends support each other. I visited, on behalf of the UK government, to offer that support and stand in solidarity with the Sri Lankan people."

The case filed under the Money Laundering Act against Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa and five others was fixed for further trial on June 7 by Colombo High Court Judge Pradeep Hettiarachchi.

Counsels appearing on behalf of the eldest son of the former president had sought a further date for the trial citing Namal Rajapaksa’s need to attend Parliament.

The Attorney General had filed indictments against six accused for their alleged involvement in laundering money amounting to Rs. 30 million through Gowers Corporate Services (Pvt) Limited.

Sujani Bogollagama, Nithya Senani Samaranayake and Iresha Silva who functioned as the Directors of Gowers Corporation Pvt Ltd., were also present in court when the case was taken up before Colombo High Court.