ISLAMABAD – PRESIDENT Sirisena has vowed to “meet the challenge and defeatterrorism” in the country. There are four probable streams that could havepropelled the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, reaction to State run anti-drugcampaign, Daesh fighters, India, and a combination of these.
Though Daesh has accepted the responsibility, Indian state terrorism, thistime, riding the ISIS vehicle cannot be overlooked. After having lost itssubstantial territories and fortune Daesh may be too willing to do aproject for India. Sri Lankan decision to lease out Hambantota Port toChina for 99 years, in December 2017, in exchange for offsetting its debttaken from China, had upset India beyond redemption.
Though China and Sri Lanka maintain that Hambantota Port was purely acommercial project, India and its anti-China allies think otherwise. In2014, Chinese submarines came calling the port the same day when PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe of Japan was visiting Colombo, this was viewed as anominous signal from China. India views Indian Ocean as its national lake,so couldn’t have stomached it easily.
Though the final lease agreement forbids military activity there withoutSri Lanka’s invitation, Indian officials, and some Sri Lankan analysts fearthat the Chinese government may be able to dangle debt relief in exchangefor its military’s use of assets like the Hambantota Port.
“The only way to justify the investment in Hambantota is from a nationalsecurity standpoint — that they will bring the People’s Liberation Armyin,” said Shivshankar Menon, India’s former National Security Adviser. Inan interview with The Times, Nihal Rodrigo, a former Sri Lankan ForeignSecretary and Ambassador to China characterized the Chinese line as, “Weexpect you to let us know who is coming and stopping here.”
Soon after coming to power, President Sirisena showed keen to reorient SriLanka towards India, Japan and the West. But soon realized that no othercountry could fill the economic space that China held in Sri Lanka. SoIndia may have lost the patience and re-embraced erstwhile Indra GhandiDoctrine to keep Sri Lanka destabilised as its Foreign Policy objective.Maria Abi-Habib reported for New York Times on June 25, 2018, captioned:
“How China Got Sri Lanka to Cough Up a Port”: “This transfer gave Chinacontrol of territory just a few hundred miles off the shores of a rival,India, and a strategic foothold along a critical commercial and militarywaterway”. Handover of Hambantota to the Chinese has kept alive concernsabout its military use.
Besides Sri Lankans, at least 40 foreigners were also killed, includingBritish, US, Australian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch andPortuguese nationals. Most of the foreigners were tourists, sitting down tobreakfast at the hotels when the bombers struck. Various countries havewarned their nationals to avoid Sri Lanka unless it was absolutelynecessary. It will a long time to revive the tourist industry to pre-Easterlevel. Investigations into war-time rights abuse allegations had weakenedSri Lanka’s security mechanism.
President blamed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government forweakening the intelligence system by focusing on the prosecution ofmilitary officers over alleged war crimes during an India sponsoreddecades-long uprising by Tamil separatists. Military officials faced trialfor alleged “abduction and murder”. Hence there came a “serious lapse” inintelligence sharing.
Officials have affirmed a major lapse in not widely sharing intelligencewarnings from India of possible attacks.
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President Sirisena said that top defence and police chiefs had not sharedinformation with him about the impending attacks. Opposing factions alignedto Wickremesinghe and Sirisena have often refused to communicate with eachother and blame setbacks on their opponents. He further said that theplanned attack could have been a response to his campaign against illicitdrugs.
“There is a nexus between international terrorism and international drugtrade,” he said. International media especially that of India were in theforefront in naming a local Islamist extremist group called the NationalTawheed Jamaath (NTJ). Sri Lankan authorities have so far focused theirinvestigations on international links of the two domestic groups theybelieve carried out the attacks, (NTJ) and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.
Sri Lanka Tawheed Jamaath (SLTJ) is an associated arm of Indian Tamil NaduTawheed Jamaath (TNTJ). Its other branches are in the ME, US, UK, Franceand Australia.Zahran Hashim, who is believed to have masterminded Easterattacks in Sri Lanka, had spent substantial time in southern India. Indianofficials would not comment on Hashim travelling to India.
Nine home-grown, well-educated suicide bombers carried out the EasterSunday attacks, eight of whom had been identified. One was a woman. Afterthe attacks, Daesh released a video showing eight men, all but one withtheir faces covered, standing under a black Islamic State flag anddeclaring their loyalty to its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. “We arelooking into the Islamic State angle. We also suspect that some of thoseradical youth were indoctrinated and trained in India, possibly TamilNadu,” a senior Sri Lankan official said.
Underscoring Pakistan’s support to the war on terror, Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe said Colombo may seek Islamabad’s help to trace terrorists.In a written interview to the Hindustan Times, Wickremesinghe said Pakistanhas fully supported Sri Lanka’s war on terror. “If necessary, we will seektheir help to trace the terrorists and eliminate them.”
He dismissed Hindustan Times’ insinuation connecting Pakistan to thebombings. “Pakistan has extended all out help and support to Sri Lanka,” hestressed. Pakistan has condemned these terror attacks. “Pakistan stands incomplete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief,” said PrimeMinister Imran Khan in a message offering condolence and support.
BY: Iqbal Khan —The writer is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad.
