generalspeaking

Cleansing Sri Lanka of Islamist Murderers

"We had to declare an emergency situation to suppress terrorists and ensure a peaceful environment in the country."
"Every household in the country will be checked. [Lists of all residents will be made to] ensure that no unknown person can live anywhere."
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena

"I feel like I did a brave thing when I sent to see what was happening. [Perhaps this would mark the end of the terror stalking Sri Lanka recently]."
"We hope it's over. But we don't know."
Mohammed Rizwan, local shopkeeper, Sainthamuruthu, Sri Lanka

A blown-out wall inside the house next to the one rented by suspected terrorists in Sainthamaruthu. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/For The Washington Post)

In small towns people know one another. When strangers move in the townspeople take special note. In the seaside town of Sainthamaruthu this is exactly when happened when a house behind a  high wall and black metal gate was suddenly taken over by the arrival of complete strangers who got busy unloading boxes into the house. Something felt strange. So the new arrivals were approached by a group of the locals. Who asked them to leave.

This eastern shore town across the island from the capital Colombo became a very busy place on Friday as a nationwide security crackdown was taking place in the ongoing search for suspects of the massive death toll when coordinated bombings of three churches, three hotels and other locales occurred a week earlier. With their new emergency powers to stop and question people and to conduct raids police have been everywhere.

The vice-chair of a the Hijra Mosque, Imam Lateef, received a call from the house landlord about the group he had rented the home to, concerned about the people who had moved in. His suspicion was aroused by their behaviour, seriously enough for him to convey to the imam that the landlord wanted his new tenants to leave. Leading Imam Lateef and a few other mosque members to walk to the house to speak to the new tenants.

The family was from Kattankudy, responded the man who answered at the door. Which happened to be the hometown of Zahran Hashim, mastermind of the dreadful cross-country attacks. Kattankudy also had the distinction of being the base of National Thowheed Jama'ath, the group that Hashim founded. The mosque delegation asked the newcomers to leave by the day following. But following Friday prayers Mohammed Rizwan decided himself to check out the new residents.

Officers look at items including backpacks, plastic cylinders and batteries found inside a home rented by suspected terrorists in Sainthamaruthu. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/For The Washington Post)

He stopped by the house early on Friday evening when a man at the house told him to remove himself, pointing a gun for emphasis. Mr. Rizwan ran off and informed the closest police officer of what had confronted him. It took but minutes and the first blast shook the house, then another followed, and a third. Special police units and soldiers were swiftly at the scene with security forces exchanging gunfire with a man shooting an AK-47 rifle until he was shot dead.

Three people who happened by in an auto-rickshaw, ignoring warning to stop were shot by security forces, with two injured and one shot dead, a trio with no connection to the house and the attacks. Three miles from the rented house earlier in the day police found a cache of explosives in another house they raided, along with clothing and the ISIL flag the Easter Sunday bombers had used when they recorded a video of themselves swearing allegiance to ISIL.

On entering the house in Sainthamaruthu the following morning police found the bodies of children in a corner of a room along with two survivors, an injured woman and a toddler, later taken to hospital. The house was full of bomb-making equipment; detonators, wires, plastic tubes for explosives and three brand-new black backpacks. The body of the man shot by security forces lay outside. Torn sheaves of paper with the hadith printed on them were strewn about.

Local residents had spent the morning huddled at a school for shelter, awaiting the opportunity to return to their homes while the town was under a curfew, all roads closed, all shops shuttered. Sri Lanka's president stated that about 70 individuals with suspected ties to ISIL had been arrested, that an additional 70 suspects were at large. And finally, the National Thowheed Jama'ath Islamist extremist group behind the Easter attacks was banned.

Police wrap the body of a suspected terrorist killed outside a home rented by a suspected terror group in Sainthamaruthu, Sri Lanka. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/For The Washington Post)

Labels: Islamist Jihadists, Sri Lanka, Terrorism

posted by Pieface @ Monday, April 29, 2019