Bomb mastermind is ISIS fanatic who called for non-Muslims to be ‘eliminated’ in online rants
Sri Lankan intelligence were told of terror plan on April 4 (and did nothing.)
Sri Lankan Security services face backlash for ignoring warnings prior to attack
Muslim groups alerted intelligence to extremist group leaders three years ago
Leader Zahran Hashim was known for fiery online speeches calling for all non-Muslims to be ‘eliminated’ and for those who disobeyed Islam to be killed
It was also revealed that foreign intelligence agencies warned of attacks by the group several times in recent weeks – as recently as April 4
The purported leader of an Islamic extremist group blamed for a terror attack in Sri Lanka that killed over 300 people began posting videos online three years ago calling for non-Muslims to be ‘eliminated,’ faith leaders said Tuesday.
Zahran Hashim, the chief suspect behind the Easter Sunday bombings, also called for those who disagreed with Islam to be killed in videos widely available on YouTube.
It was also revealed that foreign intelligence agencies warned of attacks by the group several times in recent weeks – the first as early as April 4 – but that the information was not passed higher up the chain of command.
Much remained unclear about how a little-known group called National Thowfeek Jamaath carried out six large near-simultaneous suicide bombings striking churches and hotels.
However, warnings about growing radicalism in this island nation off the coast of India date to at least 2007, while Muslim leaders say their repeated warnings about the group and its leader began around three years ago.
Despite their pleas, there was no visible reaction from officials responsible for public security, the leaders said.
‘Some of the intelligence people saw his picture but they didn’t take action,’ said N.M. Ameen, the president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka.
Hilmy Ahamed, the Muslim council’s vice president, spoke about one of Hashim’s online speeches, saying: ‘It was basically a hate campaign against all non-Muslims.
‘Basically, he was saying non-Muslims have to be eliminated.’
That means he was a devout Muslim. Devout enough to follow the scriptures in Koran, sira & hadith.
Hashim, the suspected mastermind of the Sri Lanka bombings, was flagged to security services because of online rants calling for non-Muslims to be killed
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Zahran’s name was on one intelligence warning shared among Sri Lankan security forces, who apparently even quietly took their growing concerns to international experts as well.
Anne Speckhard, the director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, said a Sri Lankan intelligence official approached her at a conference in February with a surprising question.
She was worried about what she described as a violent, homegrown jihadi group that ‘would just disappear’ when the government tried to crackdown on them.
‘The intel person kind of came up to me and said, “You know, we’re kind of worried about this new group and there’s some activity going. What do you think?” Speckhard told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
‘It just kind of blows my mind that’s who it was.’
As far as the planning, Speckhard noted that Sri Lanka was ‘a part of the world that developed suicide vests’ during the civil war against the Tamil Tigers, a secular, nationalist group that once was the world’s top suicide attacker.
