ANOTHER deadly and devastating terrorist act has been unleashed last April 21, 2019, this time in the island country of Sri Lanka, targeting several top-end hotels and churches that resulted in the tragic deaths of more than 300 people with most of the victims believed to be Sri Lankans.
This is yet another glimpse at how terrorism has pervaded every corner of the world and how it continues to unleash its merciless destruction of lives and property. Authorities there have already blamed a domestic extremist group called National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ) for the atrocity.
But there are also reports coming out that there was advanced intelligence information and warning shared by India’s intelligence services shared with pertinent Sri Lankan officials regarding plans for a terroristic attack in that country. According to a CNN international report, the early warning was based on information extracted from an ISIS suspect that was arrested and interrogated in India.
In fact, in a statement by the ISIS published in an ISIS affiliated news agency called Amaq, the group claimed that the attackers were fighters of the Islamic State.
If the claim by the ISIS has any shred of truth then we can now see that despite the war debacle that they suffered in Syria and in other parts of the world, the siege in Marawi included, they continue to exert their influence and radicalism on a wide ranging and diverse domestic extremist groups. In the case of the NTJ or the Abu Sayyaf, these radicalized groups seemed to be more than willing to become proxies of the ISIS in the prosecution and advancement of terrorism in their own respective backyards.
For the Sri Lankan government the early warnings given by India should have compelled them to beef up their security measures particularly so called “soft targets” such as hotels, resorts, public markets or churches where a lot of people congregate on certain days.
But at this early stage of the investigation by the authorities on the attacks, it would appear that the warnings went unheeded or at worst not timely relayed to concerned leaders of the Sri Lankan government who could have acted appropriately based on the early information given.
As of now, as the investigation is being pursued, Sri Lankan authorities have already arrested dozens of suspects in the past two days and has identified the alleged mastermind of the attack to be one Zahran Hashim of the NTJ, shown in a video released by the ISIS who along with eight other men pledged allegiance to the terror group.
Further analysis seems to show that the NTJ might have had “international help” since the domestic extremist group which separated from another hardline islamist group the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath (SLTJ) is more recognized and known for vandalism by targeting Buddhist temples. The NTJ’s involvement in the recent terror attacks seemed to be way beyond the capability of the said extremist group unless, just like the Abu Sayyaf and the Mautes, they have become wiling tools and proxies of the ISIS in the campaign of terror now being waged long distance by the latter.