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| Sri Lanka | |
| Day 8: Sri Lanka bans groups suspected to be behind attacks; more arrests -100 now detained | |
| 2019-04-28 | |
The National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim were banned under his emergency powers, President Maithripala Sirisena said in a statement, nearly a week after the attacks that killed 253 people. Authorities could not act earlier to ban the two little-known groups because the law required them to show firm evidence against them, officials said. Police believe the suspected criminal mastermind of the bombings, Mohammed Hashim Mohammed Zahran, led either the NTJ or a splinter group. Less is known about Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim, whose members are also believed to have played a role in the bombings. Security forces have detained 100 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt, police said. A shootout erupted on Friday during a raid on a safe house in Sainthamaruthu in Ampara district on the island’s east coast, killing at least 15 people, including three people with boom jackets and six children, a military front man said. The maimed included the wife and a daughter of Zahran, his family said. "Yes, the wife and daughter were maimed in the attack," said Mohammed Hashim Mathaniya, sister of Zahran. "I was asked to come to identify them but I am not sure I can go," she told Rooters from the town of Kattankudy in the east where Zahran was originally based. Zahran’s driver was detained in a separate raid, according to a police statement. Bomb-making materials, dozens of gelignite sticks and thousands of ball bearings were found in a search of a separate house in the same area, along with Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... banners and uniforms, the military said. Authorities have said there could be more attacks against religious centers. Last Sunday’s bombings shattered the relative calm that the Buddhist-majority country has seen since a 26-year-long civil war with mostly-Hindu ethnic Tamil separatists ended a decade ago. The national police chief had refused to accept President Sirisena’s request to step down, two sources told Rooters on Saturday, a further embarrassment for the president. The security forces’ response has included raids on mosques and homes of people in the city of Negombo where scores died in the bombing of a church. Suspected mastermind of Sri Lanka attacks spent 'substantial time in India' [DAWN] Mohammad Zahran Hashim ‐ the suspected criminal mastermind of the Sri Lankan Easter bombings ‐ spent a "substantial amount of time in south India", The Hindu reported on Friday citing a top source within the Sri Lankan military. "We are looking into the IS angle. We also suspect that some of those radical youth (suspected bombers) were indoctrinated and trained in India, possibly Tamil Nadu," revealed the senior military official, who wished to remain anonymous. While Indian officials did not state that Hashim had travelled to India, they did point out that he had maintained virtual links with youth believed to be of Indian origin, said The Hindu. Hashim's ties with south India were also confirmed by Hilmy Ahamed, vice-president of the Moslem Council of Sri Lanka. Local Muslims say they reported mastermind of Sri Lanka terror attacks years ago [IsraelTimes] Community leaders in the Muslim-majority town of Kattankudy sounded the alarm about Zahran Hashim after seminary expelled him for ‘hardline’ views; Hashim had dozens of hate-filled sermons uploaded to YouTube When Hashim sought to influence his fellow students, parents complained to the seminary chiefs and the school asked him to leave. After a few years away he returned to Kattankudy, founded the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) group, and worked with some former classmates to build a mosque where he could preach and share his rabble-rousing sermons. “He was a good orator… he would pick and choose words from the Quran and twist and misuse them,” one official at a local mosque told AFP. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was terrified of reprisals from Hashim’s followers. Hashim’s violent streak attracted police attention three years ago when he brandished a sword during clashes with members of another Muslim organization, the official said. But just as the net seemed to be closing in, he went into hiding with some followers, operating what appeared to be an NTJ breakaway group that was linked to vandalism attacks on Buddhist statues in Sri Lanka in December. In 2014, a group called the “Peace Loving Moderate Muslims in Sri Lanka” published a newspaper commentary saying that the NTJ was “fast becoming a cancer” within Sri Lanka’s Muslim community and warned that the group was making mosque attendance compulsory, forcing a strict implementation of Islamic law and making women cover their faces and wear long robes. According to Hilmy Ahamed, vice-president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, Hashim shifted base to southern India. “All his videos have been uploaded from India. He uses boats of smugglers to travel back and forth from southern India,” he told AFP. Though complains were made about Hashim’s videos, YouTube declined to remove them on breach of policy grounds until after the attacks, according to Britain’s Sky News. The video sharing platform told Sky on Thursday it was deleting all of Hashim’s sermons, and other videos mentioning him other than news reports. India has warned Sri Lanka that suicide attacks were possible weeks before Hashim and the other bombers walked into three churches and three hotels on Easter Sunday. India’s warning was based on videos and other Islamic State-influenced material seized from raids in southern Tamil Nadu state in 2018. Islamic state claims attack on east coast city of Sri Lanka [TWITTER]
Amaq releases picture of two of the two attackers of Kalmunai [TWITTER]
President of Sri Lanka has taken steps to ban National Thawheed Jammath (NTJ) & Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem (JMI) [TWITTER]
Navy has arrested a man with a motorcycle & 51 explosive sticks (approx 130g each), 27 ft of safety fuse and 215 detonators in Erakkandi [TWITTER]
15 killed in raid on Islamist hideout: Sri Lanka police [TWITTER]
Analysis of Accents of Sri Lanka bombers [twitter]
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| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #4 I thought banning armed groups dedicated to murdering you was considered the very definition of Islamophobia. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-04-28 09:38 |
| #3 Either or both coasts, B. Would appear to be due to toxins blown in on the sea breeze. Problematic for an island nation, see Hawaii or Puerto Rico. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2019-04-28 08:50 |
| #2 The southern states of India, especially Tamil Nadu are totally out of sync with reality. They are run by rabid ideologues and personality cults, criminals clans and commies with a historic class grudge. A sort of Sri Lankan California then ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-04-28 06:58 |
| #1 To understand how this came to be, one must look at the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The southern states of India, especially Tamil Nadu are totally out of sync with reality. They are run by rabid ideologues and personality cults, criminals clans and commies with a historic class grudge. The local populations vote for community and class, rather than for unity and stability, even if it means keeping the same incompetent, complacent buffoons in power for decades. The result is absolutely no sync with the centre's policies, including that against islamism and terrorism. There has been a slow islamization of these states, starting with kerala and west bengal has gone largely unnoticed by the central government and is now nearing dangerous levels. Tamil interference in the island nation has always existed and has resulted in only misery. There seems to be a new trend in islamist connections now. Though Srilankan authorities have been complacent and often sympathetic toward cultural and religious freedoms, it is about time they stamped out not only islamist movements but also Tamil Nadu's influence in their region. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-04-28 02:09 |