Colombo – While Sri Lanka Easter suicide attacks mastermind Zahran Hashimused social media to publicly call for the death of non-Muslims, he workedfor months in private chatrooms to persuade six young men to sacrificethemselves, Muslim community leaders say.
Christians and foreign tourists were badly hit in the attacks on threechurches and three hotels that killed 257 people, but Sri Lanka’s Muslimcommunity has also been badly scarred and has been looking into thebackgrounds of Hashim and his jihadist acolytes.
Hashim, who died in an attack on the Shangri-La hotel on April 21, inspiredwealthy brothers Ilham Ibrahim and Inshaf Ibrahim to join and bankroll hisassault, police and fellow Muslims said.
“We suspect the two brothers used their money from the spice business tofinance the bombings,” one police investigator said.
“It seems the indoctrination was via the internet — Facebook and YouTube.”
Neighbours of the Ibrahim brothers said they were secretive but devoutMuslims. They were not active members of a congregation, community leaderssaid.
“We believe Zahran radicalised these people using Facebook,” said R. AbdulRazik, a leader of the moderate Ceylon Thowheed Jama’ath (CTJ) group.
“Especially in the past year, he has been openly calling for the killing ofnon-Muslims.”
Investigators and community leaders believe the group also used socialmedia private messenges to keep in touch without being noticed by theauthorities.
– Warnings failed –
The CTJ and the main body of Islamic clerics, the All Ceylon JamiyyathulUlama, had alerted Sri Lanka’s security establishment to Hashim and hisacolytes, but said their warnings failed to get serious attention.
The Sri Lankan government has already acknowledged that foreignintelligence warnings about the attacks were not passed on to ministers.
“We asked the intelligence agencies to take down the Facebook page ofZahran because he was polluting the minds of Sri Lankan Muslims,” Raziksaid.
“We were told it is better to allow him to have the page so that theauthorities could keep an eye on what he was doing.”
Another moderate Islamic group, the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jama’ath (SLTJ) saidit called a press conference in 2017 to warn authorities about Hashim, butno action was taken.
“Zahran indoctrinated people using social media. He was spewing an IS brandof propaganda that somehow appealed to the bombers,” SLTJ spokesmanThawseef Ahamed told AFP.
A fuller reckoning of those involved in the attacks was only released byauthorities this week, revealing at least two sets of brothers.
Ilham Ibrahim died at the Shangri-La hotel while his brother Inshaf Ibrahimbombed the Cinnamon Grand.
Ringleader Hashim also died at the Shangri-la, while his yet-to-be namedbrother blew himself up when surrounded on April 26 near the easterncoastal town of Kalmunai. He was with three widows of the Easter bomberswhen police and troops laid siege to the house.
Sixteen people were killed there, including six children, relatives ofHashim, and members of his National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) movement,which has since been banned.
– Killed children –
The pregnant wife of Ilham Ibrahim, Fathima Ilham, blew herself up whenpolice raided the family home in Colombo hours after the bombings. She alsokilled her two children and three police officers.
Mohamed Azzam Mubarak Mohamed has been named as the bomber who targeted theKingsbury hotel in Colombo. His wife is now in police custody.
A fourth hotel was on the bombers’ list. The would-be attacker, AbdulLatheef, failed to set off his explosives. He detonated it a few hourslater at a small motel, killing himself and two other people.
Latheef studied aeronautical engineering at Kingston University in Britainand did post-graduate studies in Melbourne, Australia. Australian mediasaid he was under investigation in 2014 by the country’s counter-terrorismunit and may have travelled to Syria.
He also came into contact with Hashim through Facebook posts and Youtubevideos.
The men who bombed the three churches have been named as Ahmed Muaz,Mohamed Hasthun and Mohamed Nasser Mohamed Asad. The three were hardlyknown within their communities, according to Muslim leaders. -APP/AFP