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Cabinet approval has been granted to expedite the implementation of the recommendations submitted by the experts’ committee appointed to restructure the SriLankan Airlines.

President Maithripala Sirisena appointed a committee headed by State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne in January 2019 to make recommendations pertaining to a restructuring strategy for the loss making SriLankan Airlines.

The committee of experts comprised Senior Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, University of Sri Jayewardenepura Professor Dissa Bandara, President of the Association of Public Finance Accountants of Sri Lanka V. Kanagasabhapathy, Deputy Auditor General L. S. I Jayaratne, Attorney General’s Department Senior Deputy Solicitor General Viraj Dayaratne, Senior State Counsel Mahen Gopallawa, Chairman of the Finance Company PLC Wasantha Kumarasiri, former SriLankan Airlines officials Dr. Dharmadatne Herath and Ajith Amarasekara, Minister Dr. Harsha De Silva and Thisuri Wanniarachchi.

All those who were directly involved in the Easter Sunday attacks have been arrested or have been confirmed dead, Acting Police chief C.D. Wickramaratne said.  

Police on Monday in a statement said that explosives the terrorists had kept for use in more attacks have also been seized by the security forces. Wickramaratne requested the public not be mislead by misinformation and false claims.

Army Commander Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake said that the military has taken steps to ensure national security under the emergency regulations and requested the public to resume their daily activities without any fear. 

Meanwhile, Navy Commander Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva noted that the Navy had taken the necessary measures to ensure the safety of the island's ports.

Air Force Commander Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathy underscored that the Air Force had carried out extensive searches in schools throughout the country.

Former US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert O. Blake Jr, at an event organized by the Pathfinder Foundation, had claimed that the incumbent government should have established a high-level group of technocrats similar to the one that existed during the time of former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in order to prevent terror attacks in the country.
 
Delivering a presentation titled ‘Update from Washington: US Foreign Policy towards China and South Asia and what it means for Sri Lanka,’ at the BMICH yesterday, the former ambassador had pointed out that having a high-level group of technocrats in Sri Lanka could definitely benefit the country and that Sri Lanka could learn from the mistakes the US had committed before and after the 9/11 attacks.

Who is Robert O. Blake?
 
Robert O. Blake was the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka from 2009 to 2013. He was the architect of initiating US action on Sri Lanka in the Human Rights Council in 2012.

Since then, he has retired from US Government Service. He now works for McLarty Associates which claims to be able to provide access to US business and Congress for personnel in countries around the world, for a fee. McLarty Associates employs former diplomats like Robert Blake who are willing to be mercenaries with former White House officials, journalists, and intelligence officers, among others. 

Pathfinder Foundation

US citizen Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is now desperate to realize his Presidential ambitions, need people to lobby for him with US Congress and the US Administration and help build his international profile, and he needs all the help he can get. So Gotabaya makes arrangements to have Robert Blake hired and he visits Sri Lanka and speaks at an event in Colombo, just weeks after the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, and days after Gotabaya expresses determination to contest for the Presidency.
 
The event is organised by Milinda Moragoda’s Pathfinder Foundation funded by Chinese money which now seems to have become a branch of the so-called “Viyathmaga”. The sole objective of the Pathfinder Foundation these days is building Gotabaya’s international profile, grooming him to take over the Presidency.
 
What is Blake Jr. saying? 

Robert O. Blake Jr., at this Pathfinder Event, sings for his supper by praising Gotabaya’s “so-called” leadership. Blake knows very well that Gotabaya, during his time as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence was constantly surrounded by sycophants, wheeler-dealers, lackeys, yes men and even murderers who would do anything illegal at Gotabaya’s command. Yet, being the mercenary that he is now, he shamelessly lies to the public saying that Gotabaya had a high-level group of technocrats who prevented terror attacks in the country. 

One wonders how and why these so-called technocrats could not then prevent the bomb attack on Gotabaya himself or on the Commander of the Army at the time, Sarath Fonseka. Does that mean that these technocrats and Gotabaya planned and carried out those attacks themselves to hoodwink the public into believing that it was the LTTE? If so, with stories being circulated that Gotabaya paid the BBS and the National Thawheed Jamath from a secret vote in the Ministry of Defence, one wonders who is behind the Easter Sunday attacks.
 
It is common knowledge and Blake knows this very well, that Gotabaya was constantly surrounded by sinister characters who would do anything to please Gotabaya in return for questionable rewards. Sadly, he himself has now joined this group of mercenaries.
 
People who have seen Gotabaya operate at close quarters know how Gotabaya refused to heed the advice of technocrats even after the conclusion of the conflict in 2009. He was not interested in matters concerning Sri Lanka’s post-conflict security and intelligence reforms. He did nothing to develop the defence, security or intelligence sectors. All he was interested in was to strengthen dictatorial centralised individual control and not strengthen or set up institutional arrangements that will last. In fact, we are today paying the price for his lack of professionalism and refusal to work with technocrats or skilled professionals with knowledge in these fields.
 
Moreover, he antagonised and isolated Sri Lanka from the international community that is essential for setting up the networks required for fighting international terrorism and countering violent extremism inspired by groups and entities outside Sri Lanka. He even ignored giving legal or statutory force to the National Security Council.
 
If he was so knowledgeable about security, if he had technocrats advising him or if he heeded the advice of technocrats who were sharing their views with him, why then did he fail to at least institutionalise the National Security Council!?
 
If he had actually acted as a professional and a true patriot at the time and set up institutional mechanisms, such institutions would have ensured that action was taken despite the President’s lethargy or ignorance, to prevent the attacks that took place on Easter Sunday.
 
The blood of the innocent human beings who perished on 21st April is on Gotabaya’s hands as much as Sirisena’s. It is a sad day indeed to watch people like Robert Blake become mercenaries who sing for their supper instead of helping Sri Lanka strengthen democracy, rule of law, statutory and other regulations to enhance security, combat terrorism and violent extremism, and attract investors to expand its economy and become a hub in the Indian Ocean so that Sri Lanka can finally achieve stability, reconciliation, development and true prosperity for all her people instead for a privileged few.

In a letter addressed to the President of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), As-Sheikh Rizwe Mufthi, the State Ministry of Defence has refuted claims made by Rizwe Mufthi at the all-religious leaders’ meeting held under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena on April 26.

The Secretary to the State Ministry of Defence, N.K.G.K. Nammawatta refuted the claim made by President of ACJU that the latter had handed over all information and documents regarding the IS-affiliated Islamist extremists in Sri Lanka to State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene in 2015.

The State Ministry of Defence has urged As-Sheikh Rizwe Mufthi to rectify “this misleading and misrepresentation of facts” and emphasized that legal action would be taken against him if he fails to comply.

The Constitutional Council unanimously approved the appointment of Acting Attorney General, Dappula de Livera as the country's new Attorney General.

The decision was taken at the Constitutional Council meeting chaired by the Speaker Karu Jayasuriya that was held on Tuesday, the Speaker's Office said.

Dappula de Livera has over 32 years of experience as legal counsel and has served as State Counsel for the Attorney General’s Department. He is a member of the National Commission Against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons in Sri Lanka as well as the Task Force established by Justice Ministry to deal with human smuggling and illegal migration.

The revision application filed by former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa challenging the Trial-at-Bar order dated January 11, 2019 in the D. A. Rajapaksa Museum case was fixed for May 17 by Court of Appeal.

Court of Appeal two-judge-bench comprising justice Achala Wengappuli and Justice Arjuna Obeysekera fixed the application for May 17 in order to announce a date for the order.

On February 11, the Permanent High Court-at-Bar decided to overrule preliminary objections raised by Gotabaya Rajapaksa and six others in connection with the D. A. Rajapaksa Museum case citing that the Permanent High Court-at-Bar has jurisdiction to hear this case. 

The former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence is being charged in connection with the alleged misappropriation of public funds belonging to the Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (LRDC), amounting to Rs. 33.9 million, that was used to construct D.A. Rajapaksa Museum and Memorial in Medamulana.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of a major global threat from foreign fighters fleeing the defeated Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organisation and declared stopping them should be a high global priority.

"They, as well as those they inspire, represent a major transnational threat", he said on Tuesday at the launch of the UN Countering Terrorist Travel Programme (CTTP). "Detecting and disrupting these terrorists and other high-risk criminals prior to them carrying out an attack is a high priority for the international community".

He warned, "Many are well trained and could carry out future terrorist attacks. Others hope to radicalise and recruit new followers to their cause".

Two years ago the UN estimated that over 40,000 foreign terrorists from more than 110 countries may have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join terrorist groups, he said. With the fall of the territories held by Daesh, many of them are returning home or relocating to other trouble spots or safe haven, he added.

"It is apparent that that these terrorist who lost territory elsewhere are looking for new pressure points to ignite", Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative Rohan Perera, whose nation was attacked by terrorists last month on Easter, said.

Two affiliates of Daesh has claimed responsibility for the Easter suicide bombings in his country and it is investigating Daesh links to two local groups, National Thowheed Jamath and Jamath Millate Ibrahim, he said.

Perera, who is also the head of the UN Committee on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, said that Sri Lanka is pursuing efforts to establish a regional counter-terrorism there.

Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov, the head of the Office of Counter-Terrorism, described the CCTP as a flagship programme of his office in partnership with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the Office of Information Communication Technology (OICT) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Under the programme the UN is to provide state-of-the-art software, goTravel, which is capable of analysing travel data to help help countries track terrorism suspects across borders, according to the UN. It will be able to cross-check data from Advance Passenger Information System used by some government agencies and Passenger Name Record used by airline reservation systems with international databases of terrorist and criminals through an enhanced information exchange.

President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed authorities to bar journalists from covering search operations conducted by the security forces, the President's Media Division (PMD) said in a statement today (07).

Unwarranted media attention, especially displayed on certain mainstream media channels discarding media ethics, has led to various communities being inconvenienced as they are being labelled as terrorists.

The President's Media Division said that religious leaders too have requested President Sirisena to instruct relevant authorities to abstain from giving media coverage during search operations.

The Press Release sent by the PMD is found below. 

"A request has been made not to telecast the occasions when the security forces conduct search operations in houses and public places through the media. Furthermore, clear instructions have been given by President Maithripala Sirisena to the security forces not to allow participation of journalists and civilians when conducting search operations and it has to be conducted exclusively by the members of the security forces.

At present, a special security programme has been implemented across the country, according to the advice of H.E. the President and under the guidance and supervision of the Ministry of Defence, following the unexpected and regrettable incidents of violence on the Easter Sunday.

Under this process, the investigation works are being carried out continuously and the houses, public places and vehicles are being inspected.

As a result of unwarranted media publicity for these investigations conduct with the aim of ensuring the public security, various communities in the society face difficulty due to the telecast of these footages and some persons who are not involved in these terrorist activities in any way face great inconveniences because the society deemed them as terrorists.

Various sections of the society, including the religious leaders have requested the President in this regard at several times, and considering those requests and in order to prevent inconvenience to any community in the society, the Government requests all the media institutions not to conduct media coverage regarding these search operations."

The Cabinet has approved the proposal put forward by Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam to distribute tablet computers (tabs) among school children in spite of president Maithripala Sirisena’s objections.

Kariyawasam’s proposal calls for the free distribution of 183,000 tabs at a cost of Rs. 3.5 billion.

The President, from the beginning, held the view that a pilot project should be implemented first on the distribution of tablets. He had opined that a final decision could be taken subject to the results of the pilot project and that there is no need to provide 183,000 tabs at this initial stage.

The matter was taken up for discussion at the Cabinet meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday (07). Despite his objections, president Sirisena caved in, enabling the Education Minister to get Cabinet approval to proceed with the programme.

India's deep state is well versed in the art of intelligence warfare. Its human intelligence-led inputs to the Sri Lankan establishment, though unutilised, showed that they were on top of their game. India has been tracking the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) for sometime now.

New Delhi moved with great alacrity passing on direct actionable intelligence in the weeks and days leading up to the Easter Sunday bombings. And this happened from material accessed during interrogations of an ISIS suspect arrested in India.

The Sri Lankan government even had a warning that Catholic churches were among the possible targets. The suspect gave Indian investigators the name of a man - Zahran Hashim - he had trained, who is associated with a Sri Lankan extremist group implicated in the bombings. The shadowy man, Zahran Hashim, was identified in a video of the purported attackers released by ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday macabre massacre.

IANS met several top intelligence functionaries to piece together the emergence of Sri Lanka as the new terror central. While doing so, it unearthed a gargantuan and deep-seated Lashkar plot which goes back at least 14 years showing how LeT had invested for years in Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and even Malaysia as part of a larger encirclement strategy of India.

Indian intelligence has been alive to this and has used all its skill sets and ground-level inputs to mitigate the terror threat emanating from the island and other neighbouring countries. It needs to be established here that ISI C Wing and LeT are two sides of the same coin as far as jihad is concerned.
ISI has been using Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq (IKK) as a proxy to radicalise unemployed Muslim youth in Sri Lanka and coax them to join the NTJ.

In parallel, India has bolstered its security apparatus in Tamil Nadu and Kerala due to the strong presence of NTJ members in these states.

The rise of IS and its vile and noxious thought process of establishing a Caliphate has found takers in Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives. At least 200-250 Maldivians have reportedly fought for the IS in trouble spots like Syria and these are mules who make the trek to Yemen where they are further indoctrinated and trained, then sent on wars sometimes to Mali and Chad for fighting or to the combat zone in Iraq and Syria to fight under the IS flag.

A Tokyo-based online magazine 'The Diplomat' validated this saying a December 2015 report by the Soufan Group, a private intelligence agency run by former FBI agent-turned contractor Ali Soufan, put out a count of foreign fighters who'd volunteered to fight for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Four South Asian countries featured in that list - Malaysia, Pakistan, India, and the Maldives - sending an estimated 393 fighters among them. It was the island nation in the Indian Ocean that sent analysts and headlines into a tizzy with the rise of radical Islam with its bent towards Salafist tendencies. It had by far the highest per capita fighters in the sandbox.

The Indian deep state has been following Islamic militancy in Sri Lanka, a fertile breeding ground since 2004. The tipping point in the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the emerald isle has Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)'s hand prints all over it. A special group headed by LeT's Muzzamil Bhat from Sialkot and his lackeys made forays into Bangladesh, the Maldives and Sri Lanka between 2005 and 2007, knowing fully well that these areas could be used to further their agenda and to encircle India.

Muzzamil Bhat is one of the planners of 26/11 and is reported to be the architect of the Chittisinghpora massacre. The entire construct of this plan to use these countries as a launchpad to train terrorists was part of his larger architecture.

The FBI in its 26/11 chargesheet named Bhat as D, a key LeT military commander, who was involved in the Chittisinghpora massacre in Jammu and Kashmir on the eve of President Bill Clinton's visit to India in March 2000.

In its second chargesheet, filed in a Chicago court, the FBI named an ISI officer, Major Iqbal, and four LeT operatives - Sajid Majeed, Abu Qahafa, Abu Alqama and the unknown Lashkar member 'D'. About 'D' the chargesheet states that after the arrest of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in Pakistan in connection with the 26/11 attacks, he became the overall operational commander of LeT.

According to FBI, 'D', who is yet to be arrested by Pakistan, was a handler of David Coleman Headley. Headley told Indian investigators that Muzzamil was involved in the Chittisinghpora massacre. In turn, Headley also said Muzzamil was most trustworthy lieutenant of Lakhvi and apart from Chittisinghpora killings of Sikhs, he planned the Akshardham temple attack in September 2002.
According to Indian security establishment sources, Muzzamil is a Kashmiri born in 1976. He is married and his family lives in the Gujranwala town of Pakistani Punjab.
Bhat, on the other hand, is a planner and his understanding was that with Indian intelligence and security forces keeping a close vigil on southern India in those years, he reckoned that taking the training camps offshore would be a better idea. SIMI was already active in southern India, they had set up a southern chapter across the four states, while Bhatkal had become a new centrifuge.

Terror central was moving from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to the southern part of India. Hence Muzzamil arrived in Sri Lanka to test the waters and quickly realised that there was traction amongst Tamil Muslims after the Tsunami, ditto in Bangladesh among the Rohingyas between 2004-2008.

But RAW which was extremely active in both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka did not allow Bhat or his henchmen to stabilise their operations.
In 2011, ably abetted and assisted by ISI officer Amir Zubair Siddiqui (Counselor in the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo), a new name popped up on the radar - Zakir Hussain - who began to actively consort with and recruit Tamil Muslims on the island. The plan was to recruit them and unleash hell on diplomatic missions in Chennai and Bangalore, but RAW once again found the scent and pursued them to cut off their feed stock of financing, explosives and weapons.

India engaged with Colombo and brought it up to speed on Siddiqui's shenanigans who was then packed off from Sri Lanka. The diplomat Amir Zubair Siddiqui's plot was to attack the US Consulate in Chennai, Israeli Consulate in Bengaluru, Eastern Naval Command HQ in Visakhapatnam and ports across the country.

Once RAW had blown his cover, NIA moved in to chargesheet Siddiqui who was then visa counselor at the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo. Siddiqui was arrested for allegedly conspiring to attack vital establishments in India and was quietly withdrawn even before the NIA's request under Mutual Assistance Legal Treaty (MLAT) reached Colombo.

The terror plot was uncovered after the NIA police personnel arrested an ISI agent Mohammed Zakir Hussain (37) through the 'Q' Branch of the Tamil Nadu police in 2013. The reason was that he was gathering details about vital installations in Tamil Nadu and sent photographs to Siddiqui. Hussain used his counterparts Sivabalan and Mohammad Salim to circulate fake currency in the state.

During questioning, Hussain also confessed that he had also used Rafeeque (29) to pump in fake Indian currency in the state.

A much larger network of Maldivians, Sri Lankan Muslims and Malaysian Tamils was discovered through this overarching probe. The hunters caught up with the quarry - Zakir Hussain - and another lynchpin was caught in Malaysia and the cartel was busted. Muzzamil Bhat was the spider who spun the web across the three countries and began the process of indoctrination in Sri Lanka. His tireless efforts paid dividends for he planted the seeds as far back as the mid 2000s. He was the first to connect the dots between Thowheed Jamaat which proselytises (mainly among the Tamil community), fights for "pure Islam" and actively promotes construction of mosques in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan Tamil Muslim areas.

(To be continued)

The Ministry of Finance announced a host of measures aimed at strengthening the tourism industry including the reduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) imposed on hotels and tourist operators. The tourism sector was one of worst affected after the deadly Easter Sunday attacks that rocked the island nation after the country was named as the best travel destination for 2019 by the world's premier travel magazine, 'Lonely Planet,' last year.

Accordingly, a moratorium will be announced shortly by the Central Bank to tourism sector institutions and individuals on a case by case basis. The moratorium period will be until 31st March 2020 for both capital and interest payments granted to the tourism sector as of 18th April 2019, a release by the Finance Ministry said.

Furthermore, capital and interest falling due during the moratorium period should be converted into a term loan which should be recovered from July 2020 and charged a concessionary rate.

Enterprise Sri Lanka

With regard to the Enterprise Sri Lanka credit schemes introduced by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera to create a new entrepreneur class, the Finance Ministry said that they will allocate Rs. 1.5 billion to provide interim releif for teh tourism sector loans coming under the Enterprise Sri Lanka credit schemes. 

Tourism sector loans (Jaya Isura, Green Loan etc.) shall also be considered on a case-by-case basis for the moratorium, State Minister Eran Wickramaratne said. He added that the interest subsidy will be borne by the government on outstanding credit facilities (both capital and interest) granted to the tourism sector in the performing category as at 18th April 2019.

Borrower’s repayment will start from 1st April 2020 and capital and interest payments falling due during the moratorium can be recovered from July 2020 onwards. Alternatively, the repayment period can be extended for the number of months it was falling due during the moratorium.

Tourism loans registered on or before 18th April 2019 will be granted before 31st March 2020 under Enterprise Sri Lanka, with the interest subsidy to be borne by the government to continue from the granted date. 

Working Capital Loans 

Arrangements have been made to allow the tourism sector to obtain fresh Working Capital under the Enterprise Sri Lanka scheme with a repayment period of 2 years.  75% interest subsidy will be borne by the government from the effective interest rate until 31st March 2020.
The interest will be at 3.4% as the government is giving a 75% interest subsidy, the Finance Ministry said. 
VAT Reduced

VAT will be reduced from 15% to 5% on hotels and tour operators registered with Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) from 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020. 

Concessions for Security Equipment 

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who is on an official visit to Fiji to attend the Annual Meetings of Asian Development Bank (ADB), said on Friday (03) that he was looking to give special concessions to the tourism industry with regard to the importation of security equipment. 

Accordingly, the government has allowed the importation of security equipment duty-free, effective from 7th May 2019. However, they will be liable to pay the NBT.  The Finance Ministry said that this provision is not limited to the tourism industry and is applicable to all industries. The following security equipment could be imported duty-free.

○       Handheld Metal Detector
○       Walk-through Metal Detector
○       Baggage x-ray Inspection Equipment
○       Vehicle Scanners

The report of the committee appointed to look into regulating Madrasa schools around the country was handed over to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe by Minister of Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs Abdul Haleem on Monday.

The committee had taken into account the laws that were enforced in other countries pertaining to Madrasa Schools including the Privena Education Act when making recommendations on regulating Madrasa Schools, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The report will be also be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers after receiving advice from the Attorney General.