ISLAMABAD – A devastating series of eight bomb blasts ripped throughchurches holding Easter services and high-end hotels in Sri Lanka on 21 Apr19, killing nearly 300 people, including dozens of foreigners and injuringnearly 500. International media especially that of India are in theforefront in reporting that a local Islamist extremist group called theNational Tawheed Jamaath (NTJ) was behind the deadly suicide bomb attacksalthough no one has claimed responsibility.
Sri Lanka Tawheed Jamaath (SLTJ) is an associated arm of Indian Tamil NaduTawheed Jamaath (TNTJ). Other branches are in Middle East, US, UK, Franceand Australia. TNTJ is a non-political Islamic organization which wasfounded in 2004. TNTJ claims to preach Islam and is involved in socialactivities and encourages followers to observe peaceful protests. It helddemonstrations and protests across Tamil Nadu several times on variousissues including reconstruction of Babri Masjid, removal of liquor shopsand load shedding. Hence, the organization and its subsidiaries do not havea pronounced history of terror activities.
Indian RAW’s involvement to destabilize neighbourhood of India is nothingnew as it is part of a larger Indira Doctrine. One of the clauses of IndiraDoctrine stated, “India will not tolerate external intervention in aconflict situation in any South Asian country, if the intervention has anyimplicit or explicit anti-Indian implication. No South Asian governmentmust, therefore, ask for external military assistance with an anti-Indianbias from any country”. The timing of promulgation of Indira Doctrine inearly eighties coincided with the implosion of civil war within Sri Lankawhich converted this beautiful tourist paradise into a hell hole for nextthree decades.
As of 2011 census, 70.2 % of Sri Lankans are Theravada Buddhists, 12.6% areTamil Hindus, 9.7% are Muslims (mainly Sunni) and 7.4% Christians. Buddhismis the state religion of Sri Lanka. However, the country provides freedomof religion and right to equality amongst all its citizens. There isnegligible religious dissention in Sri Lanka – unlike India.
According to a recent McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) study, Sri Lanka isamongst few countries that are well-prepared to rise amongst emergingmarkets in the next decade.
China’s role in Sri Lanka has grown remarkably in recent years. Recentdevelopments have shown a “pro-China” slant to Sri Lanka’s current foreignpolicy which is evident in the continued Chinese investment in Sri Lankaand the country’s support of China’s position in the Indo Pacific. SriLanka is an important country which is part of the Chinese strategicinitiative in the Indian Ocean, known as the Maritime Silk Road and is partof the bigger development strategy known as the One Belt, One Road.
Sri Lanka’s emerging market is a matter of concern for India for obviousreasons. However, the China factor has put some other countries in anuncomfortable position too, including India. Indo-Pacific alliance and Quadcomprising India, US, Australia and Japan has been created to contain China.
Pakistan maintains the best of relationship with Sri Lanka which encompasseconomic, security and diplomatic ties. The relationship also fosters onstrong mutual Sino-Pakistan and Sino-Sri Lankan relationship. Relations aregenerally warm and have grown into strong ties during recent times.Pakistan was a key supplier of weapons and training to Sri Lanka’s militaryin its decades-long, bloody war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam(LTTE) that ended in May 2009. Even after this incidence, Pakistan hasextended all out help and support to Sri Lanka.
Who could benefit from latest bombing Incident? Christchurch terror attackagainst Muslim community had greatly boosted the concept of Islamophobiaand presented Muslims as target of Right Wing Neo Nazi groups; thisnarrative was not acceptable to Neo Cons, Neo Nazis, Israeli lobby as wellas RSS backed Modi government. It is important to carry out an appraisal asto who could be the beneficiary of this attack. Following are some of theconclusion:-
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It is prudent to look at this incidence in Sri Lanka in context with themassacre of Muslims that took place in Christchurch New Zealand recently.There has been a wide ranging sympathy for the Muslims across the worldafter Christchurch massacre. Such a compassion for Muslims was against theprevailing “Islamic Terror narrative” of the West, India and Israel.Therefore, a balancing act was required to again push the Muslims in theswamp of terrorism that would foster hatred against Muslims.
Putting blame of Sri Lanka bombing on Muslims is also in line with theModi’s anti-Muslim election campaign narrative that strengthens Modi andRSS rhetoric that Muslims are terrorists. No wonder Modi has started usingit as an election slogan by asking the voters to vote for him as he is thestrongman who can fight terror in the region. Use of ISIS Kerala and ISISBangladesh for fulfilling RAW’s evil designs and putting blame on Muslimsin India and elsewhere also needs to be comprehended.
As the reports pour in from Sri Lanka, it is being highlighted that some ofthe suicide bombers came from affluent Muslims in Sri Lanka who had studiedin UK and Australia, should this ring some alarm bells in London andCanberra, as to how these Muslim students were being radicalized. The ISISenterprise being dismantled in Syria had lot of newly converted WhiteEuropeans as well as Muslim cadres from different part of the world. It isalso suspected that Ajit Doval and RAW had tried hard to bring Syrian ISIScadres into Afghanistan to create a new terror network against Pakistan,after they saw that Pakistan had dismantled the TTP network in itsbordering areas with Afghanistan.
Unfortunately, infighting in Srilanka political leadership and some oftheir security institutions created a dangerous gap in surveillance systemwhich allowed these ISIS terrorists to strike Sri Lanka at time and placeof their choosing. As India claims that she had warned Srilanka leadershipabout impending terror attack, it may be noted that the leads were pickedfrom Indian State of Tamil Nadu, is India playing a double game with SriLanka.
From the above discussion, one can decipher the riddle of Sri Lankatragedy. The incident served only those who wanted to draw certain benefitsout of it as discussed above. As in investigation of a crime scene, onemust look at who benefited the most from these attacks; its Neocons, Israeland India.
BY: Adeela Naureen
