8 suicide bombers carried out an unimaginable mass suicide. That these suicide bombers were Muslims & quoted the Koran is a fact. That they targeted 3 Churches holding Easter Sunday masses reconnects with historical angst between Islam-Christianity (Clash of the Civilizations) and brings back memories of the many religious wars held. That 3 hotels were also targeted with 2 suicide bombers dispatched to only one hotel raises speculation as to something more than religious hatred. It is therefore no surprise that even after over 2 years, even after arrests & interrogations the ‘maha molakaru’ remains at large & we can only wonder if their involvement will ever come to light just as President John F Kennedy’s assassination remains a controversy even after 50 years!

But we certainly do have questions …..

• No leader commits suicide (Prabakaran is the best example who was too chicken to even wear a cyanide capsule) – therefore, Zaharan was just an interim sub-leader tasked to create a team & following orders.
• Who gave the orders to Zaharan – who was or were Zaharan’s superiors from whom he took advice or instructions are they Sri Lankans or foreigners or were there a pyramid of people unknown to each layer.
• Other than the suicide bombers & others who committed suicide in Sainamaridu and at the home of the 2 suicide bomber brothers – are they more suicide bombers lined up – does the intelligence units who had been tracking the movements of this nexus know who they are?
• We know from the Wanathawilluwa explosive discovery – Buddhist sites were next on target, this means another gang of suicide bombers are still at large.
• LTTE carried out suicide missions with an objective – they killed people who had defied their orders or whom they saw as a threat or those that had double crossed them – but in the case of the Easter Sunday suicide team, we do not know what they wanted or why they targeted 3 hotels and 3 churches and on whose instructions and what was the benefit to them to end their lives.
• We saw a video clip of the suicide team showing allegiance to ISIS – was this a wannabe attempt, or a subtle message to ISIS handlers that they had potential people in Sri Lanka to tap for future anarchy or was it aligned to the desire to create an Islamic Caliphate out of Sri Lanka – this objective is happening incrementally – subtle incursions to Buddhist heritage sites, bribing weak and vulnerable Buddhists, writing false history claiming Buddhist sites as ‘theirs’ & even arranging tourist visits for this purpose & silencing politicians not to take action by diverting attention to revenue brought from tourist visits for bogus reasons.
• Every citizen has a right to feel worried when over 600 persons have been arrested in connection with the Easter bombings and over 200 are in prison including those that society have held in high esteem. Their religious texts permits feigned appearances to fool others until their real objectives are met This immediately raises the question how many more are pretending to be what or who they are really not, simply to fool others until their inner objectives are met?
• In 2020 intelligence became aware of an ISLAMIC FEMALE UNIT – cctv footage of women purchasing white clothes made everyone to be alert to the likelihood of Vesak being the next likely target.
• 17 Muslim women had been trained & had taken an oath of allegiance (“Bayat” oath to do what & on behalf of whom) – where are these women today? Does this not warrant the country to be worried. Of the 17 – 5 are dead, 3 are in prison, 7 under detention – where is the other women?
• Who provided the explosives? Were they locally made & materials supplied by whom?
• Who provided the transport for the suicide bombers, did those who helped also know about the ultimate targets?
• Other than the 8 suicide bombers – who else knew about the attack and who took part in planning & coordinating the attacks? 
• The list of people who are guilty of neglect inspite of knowing about an impending attack include the entire government hierarchy, heads of the intel units & head of Police – having gone through 3 decades of terror, they should have known not to take 97 warnings lightly. All that required was for the Churches to be told to cancel mass and the hotel to be asked to beef up security while the armed forces & police should have been asked to block all entry & exit points. Parliamentarians who knew of the attacks from the grapevine & chose not to attend mass are equally guilty of looking after only their lives and allowing others to meet their sad fate.
• Be that as it may, a coterie of people while demanding justice for the victims are making feverish efforts to release some of the arrested hailing them as angels of justice & human rights. Not one of them appear to be bothered to even wonder if the people they are lobbying to release could have been among the inner circle of people who planned calculated murder. Being lawyers themselves, these arrested should know the gravity of their crime. The crusaders fervently seeking release of the arrested are portraying these as bigger victims than those now in their graves. With their pressure heavily influenced even from foreign quarters, it is not a surprise that we cannot get to the bottom of these mass murders.

Since Zaharan and his suicide team affirmed allegiance to ISIS – we need to link ISIS to their real paymasters who takes ISIS wherever their interventions are earmarked. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and a list of other Islamic terrorist groups function as Mary’s lambs eventually killing more Muslims than non-Muslims. So we have to wonder who this ‘maha molakaru’ is who planned to place ISIS in Sri Lanka immediately after a US-funded regime change in 2015.

Let us further connect the dots – in 2009 after the defeat of the LTTE & US losing their cannon, they rechartered their Asia strategy obviously giving up on LTTE for strategic advantage & turning to their more loyal lambs. 2019 – Sri Lanka had its first taste of that medicine on Easter Sunday.  Now these ‘maha molakaru’ are using their other pawns to spread wild notions & remove decorated officers and further weaken national security. So obviously the key target is to destabilize Sri Lanka & the pawns are many but the ‘maha molakaru’ are still at large.

We must always turn to history to see the connections.13 dead soldiers was enough to stage an attack on Tamils to write the story – Sinhala discrimination & justify LTTE taking arms though everyone conveniently forgot LTTE started killings way before 1983.

Similarly, Easter Sunday attack saw international media end their reports with a tagline giving the impression that Sinhala Buddhists were attacking Muslims and tactfully diverted attention from the Easter Sunday victims to presenting Muslims as victims & spread the notion that Buddhists were attacking Muslims. Attacks on 3 churches had nothing to do with Sinhala Buddhists, the churches were the worship centres of Catholics. This version was spread to dilute the swords in Mosques and other dangerous weapons found after raids by armed forces & police.

The killings took place under the watch of Yahapalana government where majority of Catholics had voted for them to come to power. The spin masters quickly turned the guilt of negligence by yahapalana to spread notion that the present government (then opposition) were linked to the attacks to return to power. By April 2019, yahapalana had by its own follies proved its inability to run the country. There was no requirement for any opposition role. However, it was a preposterous notion that 8 Muslims would blow themselves to bits to bring a Sinhala Buddhist leader to power! 

The suicide bombers left no note, they pledged allegiance & blew themselves up.

Something is missing in this story – who are the maha molakaru that ordered these men to carry out the killings. Indoctrination using verses of the Koran is not difficult – all over the world Islamic suicide bombers use the same quotes but who are the one’s manipulating the verses – this is the answer, we all want to know. 

Shenali D Waduge