News

Political Commentators have expressed their suspicions about the failure to arrest SLPP frontliner and UPFA member Piyal Nishantha for attempting to racially provoke people by falsely claiming that 11 troops had lost their lives in a crossfire with a terror outfit. According to the commentators this has raised serious concerns on the current state of the country’s rule of law. 

At a time where the country is reeling from a terrorist and suicide bomb attack, such comments which may create suspicions between various religious communities cannot be taken lightly they pointed out. 

According to them, it is unlikely that as a responsible MP, Piyal Nishantha was unaware that such comments could lead to religious and racial riots in the country, especially as he was employed as a teacher before joining politics. They also point out that claiming that 11 soldiers had died in the operation on the television program during a time the public were in shock 10 years after the war ended could not have been accidental. 

They say it appears the MP had planned to make the comment and when questioned by the interviewer, the MP had claimed he takes full responsibility for the comment in a bid to convince the public that the false claim was in fact true. 

However, despite his claim, the Police Media Spokesman and the Army Commander for the Eastern Province had stressed that no harm had come to any of the troops engaged in the raid. As a result, it is evident that the claim made by the MP is both false and misleading. 

Political analysts point out that the MP had attempted to drag the country towards yet another Black July in 1983. Commenting on the matter one analyst said: 

“Black July riots commenced when the LTTE attacked a military convoy on July 23, 1983 in the North. 13 Soldiers died in this attack. Their funerals should have been held in their own villages. However, on the 24th, it was decided that all the funerals will be held en masse at the Borella Cemetery. This is where the attacks against the Tamil community commenced spreading to other areas in the country”. 

“It was the moment of their burial in Colombo that prepared the people for the attack. A much more serious situation would have unraveled on the night of 26th. The Easter Sunday attack happened on the 21st. The whole country was in shock. The Buddhist community would have taken the news as 11 soldiers being killed in one place at the same time on the day the traditional seventh day almsgiving was being held”

“Luckily the authorities had imposed curfew and were conducting search operations across the country. After 30 years of war it also appeared that the people had rejected such behaviour. But even if few incidents of violence took place and if any Sinhalese were harmed, the country would have been in real danger.”

“We also must not forget that if race riots had taken place all the operations being conducted against the terrorists by the Tri-forces and the Police would have stopped. Only a few number of people are involved in these terror activities and the whole Muslim community is not involved in this. It is these people who are providing us with important information on the terror suspects. According to security forces, these people are continuing to support in their efforts”. 

“But look at the comment made by the MP Piyal Nishantha. What if the fire he started spread quickly. Will the Muslims then support our forces? The Black July of 1983 pushed the innocent Tamils towards the LTTE. This time around, the Muslims would have been pushed towards international terrorism. Isn't that our real challenge? Our country would have become yet another Sudan if so.”

“What we must understand now is the politics behind the attempt to make this country a graveyard. That politics wants blood of  a river to run in this country so that a supposed hero or saviour can appear asking for the peoples' vote to save them.”

“I remember Minister Mangala Samaraweera had grasped this. At the very first moment, he said some who engage in politics fueled by blood would try to gain political advantage at this time. He therefore had complained to the CID in this regard as well. But where are the investigations on this matter?”

“This is why we are pointing out that the failure to take action against the MP has caused serious doubts on the enforcement of the country’s rule of law. If a common man did something similar what would his fate be? He would have been dragged away by now. Doesn't this apply to Piyal Nishantha? Is there a political mandate to cause race riots through this attack and aftermath? Shouldn't the MP therefore be questioned in this regard? And what is most dangerous is that he has since failed to come out in public and apologize for the false comments made by him on a public platform”.

Questions are being raised about how much President Maithripala Sirisena knew about warnings provided by foreign intelligence agencies ahead of the Easter Sunday bombings that left at least 253 people dead and injured more than 450. 

State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Nilantha Jayawardena provided detailed reports to the President on at least three occasions, authoritative and multiple sources with close knowledge of the inner workings of the Defence establishment confirmed to Daily FT. 

One of those briefings took place ahead of the New Year holidays on 11 April, the sources confirmed. 

A second briefing by the SIS head took place about five days later the sources added. 

The Ministry of Defence was given an eleventh hour report that an attack was imminent on the evening of 20 April, Daily FT learns. The 20 April report was once again relayed by foreign intelligence agencies and specifically from India.

When the last minute reports came in SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena urged Defence Ministry officials to warn the police about what the intelligence reports were saying. Daily FT learns that these warnings were then transmitted to the IGP, even though seemingly there were no measures taken to prevent the bombings. The IGP also failed to alert churches about the threats, even though the report specifically mentioned that they were targets.

The foreign intelligence reported that Zahran Hashim and a few others were planning suicide attacks or knife attacks targeting churches and the Indian High Commission. 

The SIS head who is believed to be a close associate of President Sirisena reportedly placed a phone call to Singapore where the President was on holiday. SDIG Jayawardena reportedly warned President Sirisena just hours before last Sunday’s series of bomb explosions at three churches and five star hotels. 

According to a senior Defence Ministry official who did not wish to be named, intelligence chiefs and especially the SIS head usually brief the President as Commander-in-Chief and Minister of Defence before sending the reports to the administrators and other agencies at the Ministry. 

However, top Defense officials including the Tri-forces personnel never got directives from the President about how to go about facing the high level warnings from the intelligence agency, which was being repeatedly warned in turn by Indian intelligence.

President Sirisena has denied knowledge of the intelligence reports and claimed he only saw the warnings when they were posted on social media soon after the explosions. He has accused former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and IGP Pujith Jayasundera of failing to brief him about the threat. “They shirked their responsibilities,” the President said, calling for their resignations. Fernando has resigned but IGP Jayasundera is yet to do so in spite of the President’s orders. 

The MoD was first alerted to the foreign intelligence warning in writing on 8 April. The first meetings about the threats were held the next day. The same day the Ministry of Defence issued instructions to the Police Chief asking him to take necessary action on a priority basis. 

However, a senior official at the Ministry claimed nobody in the security establishment imagined Sunday’s attack would be as serious and brutal and co-ordinated as it was. The failure to act was on multiple levels, the official added.  

A Presidential board of inquiry is likely to interview several security sector officials about the lapses, the official said. The Daily FT learns that the IGP and the former Secretary of Defence Fernando have already given testimony before the board of inquiry.  

(Daily FT)

President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed ex-army commander General Shantha Kottegoda, WWV, RWP, RSP, VSV, USP, as the country's new Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, today (29).

The appointment of General Kottegoda comes after his predecessor, Hemasiri Fernando, stepped down from the position

Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya was sworn in as the new Chief Justice before President Maithripala Sirisena this morning, the President's Media Division (PMD) said in a release today.

The PMD also said that Solicitor General Dappula de Livera has been appointed as the acting Attorney General.

13 foreign nationals arrested by police for violating Sri Lankan immigration laws during their stay in the country, police said on Monday.

The 20-year-old Indian national was arrested from Mount Lavinia without a valid visa on Monday, police spokesman S P Ruwan Gunasekara said, adding that he would be produced before the magistrate's court on Tuesday.

The others arrested for the crime include ten Nigerians, an Iraqi and a Thai national staying in different parts of the Lankan capital. They will be produced in the courts today, he was quoted as saying by the Sunday Times.

The arrests have come after the Sri Lankan government beefed up security measures following the country's worst terror attacks on Easter Sunday, killing 253 people and injuring 500 others.

A total of 106 suspects, including a Tamil medium teacher and a school principal, have been arrested in connection with the Easter Sunday blasts.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed Senior Deputy Inspector General C. D. Wickramaratne as the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), the President's Media Division said today.

They also stated that that former IGP N.K. Illangakoon has been appointed as an advisor to the Ministry of Defence.

Islamophobia that is slowly engulfing people across the globe, with Muslims being attacked globally for following the religion it was a local Muslim youngster that had first raised the alarm about the terrorist safe house in Sri Lankan’s Kalmunai town followed by a raid by the security forces that killed 15 people inside the safe house.

It was this young youth who was passing through the street near the iron bridge in the Sainthamaruthu locality who had noticed a man standing with a rifle inside the house.

And in no time, the residents gathered at the house, demanded the IDs of people inside.

Local Masjid committee too arrived at the spot after one of the men tried to fire in the air and the Police and the Army were alerted.

Taking action on the tip-off received, the whole episode lasted for about one-and-a-half hours on Friday evening said the sources.According to sources, at least 15 people, including children are believed to have been killed in the raid including the father and two brothers of Zaharan Hashim while Hashim’s wife and four-year-old daughter were rescued.

Hashim is the suspected mastermind behind the Easter Sunday blasts that has killed over 250 people in churches and hotels across the country.

“We were all deeply upset about blasts on Easter, especially the killing of so many people at their places of worship. This made us angry, and cautious too,” said a local resident Mohammed Sulfikkar.

“The youth who saw the man with the rifle alerted others and all of us went to the house. We were suspicious because they rented that house only 10 days ago, and had no contact with anyone in the area. When we asked them to show their IDs, they were evasive. One of them got angry and said they were Muslims and it was unfair to suspect them. But we told them that we were also Muslims. When the argument got heated, one of them took out a rifle and tried to fire at the air… many of us ran.”

Another committee member said: “When we reached the house, the situation had escalated. One of them started shouting at people and called everyone ‘betrayers’. In between, he promised they would not harm Muslims. But we were adamant that we wanted to search the house.”

“One of the youths inside started throwing currency notes at the crowd. He abused us in Tamil and shouted at us to ‘eat the money’ and leave them alone. All this happened in less than 30 minutes. We alerted a traffic police officer in the neighbourhood and soon the Army arrived,” said the committee member.

Sources from the the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India said one more person was taken into custody on Saturday in connection with Colombo blasts. 

The NIA said it took Faizal, a native of Kerala's Kollam, into custody on April 27 (Saturday) on suspicion of having direct contacts with Sohran Hashif, one of the conspirators behind the Colombo blasts.  

NIA sources also confirm that Sohran visited Kerala a couple of times. The three detained yesterday from Palakkad and Kasaragode by the NIA was based on the evidences gathered from Faizal.

Two of the three persons detained yesterday were identified as Ahmed Arafat and Abu Bakar Siddiqui. They were taken in for questioning after being detained by NIA Cochin unit. 

Sources told Times Now earlier that the trio were detained after receiving information that they were in touch with Sohran Hashif, suspected to be one of the conspirators behind the bomb blasts that shook the island nation. The two Kerala youths were reportedly influenced by Sohran’s readical ideology, sources said. 

The NIA proble also found out that three persons detained yesterday had links with ISIS. The NIA officials also recovered DVDs of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik from the suspects, sources said. 

The NIA said in a statement, "NIA today carried out searches at three places in Kerala in connection with 2016 ISIS Kasaragod Module case.

They are suspected to have links with some of accused in the said case who left India to join terrorist organisation ISIS".

The father and two brothers of the suspected mastermind of Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings were killed when security forces stormed their safe house on the east coast two days ago, police and a relative said on Sunday.

Zainee Hashim, Rilwan Hashim and their father Mohamed Hashim, who appear in a video circulating on social media calling for all-out war against non-believers, were among at least 15 killed in a fierce gun battle with the military on the east coast on Friday.

Kamal Jayanathdhi, the officer in charge at Kalmunai police station on the east coast, confirmed the three men had died along with a child that appears in the video, and that the undated clip in which they discuss martyrdom, had been shot in the same house where the gun battle took place.

Two people who were inside the house, a woman and a seven-year-old girl believed to be relatives of the men, survived, he said, while a woman was killed in crossfire on a nearby street.

Niyaz Sharif, the brother-in-law of Zahran Hashim, the suspected ringleader of the wave of Easter Sunday bombings that killed over 250 people in churches and hotels across the island nation, told Reuters the video showed Zahran’s two brothers and father.

Sri Lanka has been on high alert since the attacks on Easter Sunday, with nearly 10,000 soldiers deployed across the island to carry out searches and hunt down members of two local Islamist groups believed to have carried out the attack.

Authorities have detained more than 100 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt since the April 21 bombings.

On Sunday police in the eastern town of Kattankudy raided a mosque founded by Zahran which doubled up as the headquarters of his group, the National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ).

Two suspects, wanted over the Easter Sunday bombings, were arrested on Sunday (28), in Nawalapitiya, the Police media spokesperson said.

The two men, identified as Mohammad Iwuhaim Saadiq Abdul Haq and Mohammad Iwuhaim Shahid Abdul Haq, will be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

According to the Police media spokesperson, both Mohammad Iwuhaim Saadiq and Mohammad Iwuhaim Shahid were among the suspects released by the CID.

Authorities in Sri Lanka on Monday banned women from wearing face veils under an emergency law put in place after deadly Easter Sunday attacks by Islamist militants.

The measures would help security forces to identify people as a hunt for any remaining attackers and their support network continues across the Indian Ocean island, authorities said.

But there are concerns within the Muslim community that a prolonged ban could fuel tensions in the religiously-diverse nation that emerged from a civil war with ethnic minority Tamil separatists a decade ago.

Officials have warned that the militants behind the April 21 suicide bombings on hotels and churches that killed over 250 people were planning more attacks, using a van and bombers disguised in military uniforms.

"It is a presidential order to ban any dress covering faces with immediate effect," Dharmasri Bandara Ekanayake, a spokesman for President Maithripala Sirisena, told Reuters.

Separately, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is feuding with Sirisena, issued a statement saying he had asked the justice minister to draft regulations to ban the burqa.

The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), the top body of Islamic scholars in Sri Lanka, said they supported a short-term ban on security grounds, but opposed any attempt to legislate against burqas.

"We have given guidance to the Muslim women to not to cover their faces in this emergency situation," ACJU assistant manager Farhan Faris said after the scholars asked the government to drop plans for a law against the burqa and niqab.

"If you make it a law, people will become emotional and this will bring another bad impact ... it is their religious right," he told Reuters.
About 9.7 percent of Sri Lanka's roughly 22 million people are Muslim. Only a small minority of women, usually in Muslim areas, fully hide their faces.

Human Rights Watch condemned the ban.

"That needless restriction means that Muslim women whose practice leads them to cover up now won't be able to leave home," the group's executive director Kenneth Roth tweeted.

In Kattankudy, the Muslim-majority hometown of Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran, the suspected leader of the militant group behind the attacks, there few women in the streets and none had their faces covered.

Two women declined to be interviewed by Reuters. Residents said only a small percentage of women in the town wear the burqa.

Owais Ibrahim, a Muslim shopkeeper, said he supported a ban on face coverings for security reasons.

"If it is not allowed it is not a problem," he told Reuters. "If we are living in Sri Lanka, we must respect their rules." (Reuters)

The Sri Lankan government has announced that anyone found guilty of spreading false information could be imprisoned for up to three to five years.

It said a number of public disturbances have been reported in the country due to false information in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings.

A ban on social media following the attacks will remain in place due to “misinformation shared,” president Maithripala Sirisena said Friday.
Mangala wants a CID inquiry over Piyal's statement

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera requested the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to take immediate legal action regarding a false statement made by parliamentarian Piyal Nishantha during a live TV programme.

UPFA MP (Pohottuwa faction) Nishantha stated that eleven soldiers were killed during the joint operation conducted by the Army/Police in Kalmunai on Friday night. 

Army spokesperson however confirmed that there were no casualties among the security forces who engaged in a fierce gun battle with a group of suspected ISIS terrorists.

"Piyal Nishantha's statement that 11 security personnel were killed during a shootout is a deliberate attempt to create panic among the people and to propagate a communal ideology", Samaraweera said adding that it was a grave crime to spread false statements to mislead the public under the present security situation in the country.