{"id":239597,"date":"2024-11-02T19:05:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T13:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=239597"},"modified":"2024-11-07T22:44:38","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T17:14:38","slug":"the-imam-report-has-debunked-the-sole-direct-alleged-evidence-for-the-easter-bombings-conspiracy-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-imam-report-has-debunked-the-sole-direct-alleged-evidence-for-the-easter-bombings-conspiracy-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Imam Report Has Debunked The Sole Direct Alleged Evidence For The Easter Bombings Conspiracy Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Leonard Jayawardena<\/a>\u00a0\u2013<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Leonard Jayawardena<\/p><\/div>\n

In the wake of the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks<\/a><\/span> launched against a number of targets in the country by a local Islamic Jihadi group (National Tawheed Jamaat [NTJ]) led by Zahran Hashim<\/a><\/span> on 21 April 2019, several conspiracy theories were floated as to who might be the invisible hand or “mastermind” behind the attacks on the presumption that they were not alone in carrying out these dastardly terror attacks. Several suspects were named, including India (RAW), Israel (Mossad), the US (CIA\u2014the usual suspect) and the Sri Lanka People’s Front (SLPP). Which theory one originated or chose to subscribe to depended on one’s particular prejudices.<\/p>\n

In August of that year, the SLPP named Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> (GR) as their presidential candidate for the November 2019 election and in his campaign he prioritised national security. GR won in a landslide victory and thereafter the conspiracy theory that came to the fore was that which alleged that the bomb attacks were a plan hatched by the Rajapaksas to create chaos and fear in the country with a view to coming back to power.<\/p>\n

Following the economic crisis into which the nation was plunged as a result of certain economic and fiscal policies of the GR administration and the consequent plummeting of his popularity, this conspiracy theory gained increasing traction among the public. It is a fact, though, that even before the electoral victory of Gotabaya and an iota of “evidence” emerged that the Rajapaksas had had a hand in the attacks, there were some who suspected that they were somehow behind them.<\/p>\n

The basic rationale for the theory was that Gotabaya politically benefited from the Easter Sunday tragedy and so must have been behind it. As more details relating to the bombings emerged as investigations into them proceeded, various bits of information that came to light were seized upon by the conspiracy theorists as confirmatory evidence for the theory. These included the links the person known as \u201cSonic Sonic\u201d was said to have had with the terrorists prior to the bombings. He was actually an undercover operative of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) who had infiltrated the terrorist group. The other “evidences” included the alleged transfer by GR of CID officers investigating the Easter Sunday attacks, including Shani Abeysekera<\/a><\/span>, who headed the investigation as Director of the CID, in order to sabotage it. However, in a statement dated 24 April 2024 issued in response to certain allegations made against him by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith<\/a><\/span>, GR says, “In November 2019 the then Director of the CID was transferred by the Police Commission on the recommendation of the then IGP.” He also states, “This particular CID Director had been appointed to that office in 2017 and he continued to hold that position for over seven months after the Easter Sunday attacks.” He implies that he had sufficient time to produce results from the investigation.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned and other alleged evidences for the conspiracy theory remained “evidences” of an indirect kind until the testimony of Hanzeer Azad Maulana, one-time secretary to Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (aka Pillayan), in a Channel 4 television film titled\u00a0“Sri Lanka\u2019s Easter Bombings: Dispatches<\/a><\/span>”\u00a0, which was aired on 5 September 2023. In the film Maulana claimed, inter alia, that he had knowledge of a plan hatched to bring back the Rajapaksas (Mahinda and Gotabaya) to power after creating an “unsafe [security] situation” and that he had arranged and was a witness to a meeting between Suresh Sallay and Zahran’s group at a coconut estate in Karadiyapuval, a grama niladhari division in Vanathavilluwa, in February 2018, where this plan was discussed.<\/p>\n