During the search for suspects wanted for a series of anti-Buddhist hate crimes in Mawanella, on January 17, 2019, where several Buddha statues were destroyed several weeks before, the authorities in Sri Lanka discovered a large amount of high explosives (100 kg, or 220 pounds), along with 100 detonators and various other items, including firearms, chemicals and dried food rations. An elite force of police commandos raided the remote compound near the Wilpattu National Park wildlife sanctuary, where the two suspects were known to be hiding when the shocking discovery was made at the makeshift compound operated by Islamic jihadis. The current explosives seizure has thwarted a significant Islamic terror attack in Sri Lanka. Authorities indicate the terrorists were planning to destroy sacred Buddhist shrines in the ancient city of Anuradhapura with C4 high explosives; many innocent people could have lost their lives. The amount of explosives that was seized, along with 100 detonators, would have destroyed an historical epicenter of Buddhism and Sri Lankan civilization in Anuradhapura. There is the possibility of more explosives being hidden in the area of the compound or throughout Sri Lanka.
Also, the same group of Islamic jihadis in the house at the remote compound were inciting youths into vandalizing Buddha statues to stoke tensions with the Sinhalese Buddhist community, in order to purposefully provoke a reaction to manipulate some negative publicity against the Sinhalese. In other words, these jihadis were deliberately trying to create a larger public backlash from the Sinhalese against Muslims throughout Sri Lanka as part of an elaborate sinister scheme, akin to a false flag operation, by destroying the Buddha statues. The completion of their evil plans to destroy larger holy shrines of Buddhism using C4 in the ancient city of Anuradhapura may have triggered a widespread conflict inside Sri Lanka. Similar tactics of deception to manipulate publicity are commonly used by jihadis across the world, but in this particular case they have been exposed by Sri Lankan authorities with the intentions to create a climate of religious conflict, according to Economy Next, January 18, 2019:
Official sources said the discovery was made during investigations into recent hate attacks against Buddha statues elsewhere in the country in an apparent attempt to spark tensions between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims.
In an article in the Daily Mirror on January 19, 2019:
The CID [Criminal Investigation Department] yesterday obtained a three-month detention order from the defense secretary to interrogate the four suspects who were found in possession of some 100 kilos of explosives and 100 detonators at Lacktowatta in Wanathawilluwa, Puttalam.
The suspects including the owner of the land where some of the explosives were buried, were arrested by the CID on Thursday.
The defence secretary is empowered to grant a detention order for 90 days.
The CID also recovered 20 liters of nitrate acid, wire codes, two firearms, a stock of ammunition, a computer, a camera and a stock of dry rations.
A senior police official said a coordinating secretary of a minister is said to have come to the land where the explosives were buried after the raid.
This haul of explosives was recovered following investigations carried out on the telephone numbers found in a mobile phone of a suspect arrested over the incident where Buddha statutes were demolished in Mawanella recently.
A police team had raided a house at Lacktowatta in Wanathawilluwa on information received that the main suspect of the Mawanella incident and his brother were hiding there but they were not found in the house.
The main suspect of the Mawanella incident is reported to have conducted lectures on extremist ideologies to some youths in the said house.
Police are conducting investigations to arrest the main suspect of the incident where Buddha statutes were demolished in Mawanella and his brother.
The increasing global problem of Islamic terrorism is now becoming a harsh reality in Sri Lanka. The four men arrested at the compound with the explosives are being held for three months for further interrogation, with permission from the Defense Ministry under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, to establish more information about their network and motives. There have been no prior Islamic terror attacks in Sri Lanka, and authorities are wondering if this new jihadist group in Wanathawilluwa, the northwest region of the island, has connections to international Islamic terror organizations. The evil purpose of these explosives is yet to be determined.
A recent rise of Islamic jihad activity in Sri Lanka has been paralleled by a rise in Islamic gangs who are controlling the drug trade. The historic heroin seizure in December, 2018 shows a direct link to networks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Ruthless Islamic gangs are known to control the underworld in Sri Lanka, and have been connected to the recent assassination plot of the President, along with several other political leaders in late October 2018. Not much information is known about this new radical Islamic group which was caught with the explosives or their connections to the underworld in Sri Lanka, but the common purpose of these Islamic gangs and jihadist networks is to create conflict and political instability inside Sri Lanka. Many Sri Lankans, both Tamils and Sinhalese, believe they have become the target of Islamic jihadis over the last few years; growing evidence shows their fears are not unfounded, since there have been no previous historic problems with Islamic terror in Sri Lanka.
According to the same Economy Next article:
There have been no attacks in Sri Lanka linked to foreign Islamist groups despite local media reports that a 37-year-old Sri Lankan had been killed in Syria in 2015 while fighting for Islamic State (IS) group.
And from the US State Department‘s Country Report On Terrorism 2015, Chapter 2: South & Central Asia Overview:
In July, Sri Lanka saw the first confirmation that Sri Lankans had joined ISIL when social media announced the death of Sharfaz Shuraih Muhsin, an ISIL fighter from Sri Lanka, after he was killed in coalition airstrikes in Syria. Thauqeer Ahmed Thajudeen – Muhsin’s brother-in-law and fellow Sri Lankan national – was later identified as a member of ISIL in Syria. According to media reports quoting Turkish government sources, 10 members of Muhsin’s family went to Iraq through Turkey. Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi said that although there were reports of Sri Lankans joining ISIL, there was no concrete evidence to suggest the group was operating in Sri Lanka.
And from an article on March 8, 2018 on LankaWeb called “Sectarian Violence Spike Timed with Returning Sri Lankan ISIS Terrorists from Syria,” the author establishes a connection in the rise of Islamic extremism to the returning ISIS fighters from Syria and abroad:
Former Minister of Justice warned the government that 32 Muslims from Sri Lanka have joined ISIS. Instead of investigating his claims, the government removed him from the ministry!
Sharfaz Nilam from Kandy went to Syria with 16 others (parents, wife, six children and friends). He studied Shari’a law at International Islamic University (Pakistan). This information was published in Dabiq (ISIS’s English magazine). He worked at Colombo University and later as the principal of a school in Kandy. Although he died in a coalition air strike on a ISIS hideout, 35 other Sri Lankan Muslims who joined ISIS have unknown whereabouts. They probably survived the war.
President Dr Bashar Al Asaad scored a series of dramatic military victories in Syria forcing foreign ISIS terrorists to flee. ISIS gave them new passports (mostly Indian passports) to travel back. Most Sri Lankan ISIS terrorists came home in 2017 as they followed scores of other losing ISIS fighters in Syria.
Although there have been no actual Islamic terror attacks in Sri Lanka, dozens of Muslims are known to have joined ISIS, and most of them returned to Sri Lanka in 2017 with the defeat of the Islamic State. This raises the concern that there could be a connection to ISIS from this latest seizure of explosives in Sri Lanka, as these returning ISIS fighters undoubtedly have the networks and more than likely the experience with high explosives and bomb making. Certainly there is an established connection to ISIS in Sri Lanka through these returning fighters from Syria and the Middle East. Indeed, the northwestern part of Sri Lanka at the Wilpattu nature reserve, near where the explosives were recently discovered, has a larger population density of Muslims (19-27.4%); illegal deforestation of this wildlife reserve is considered a contributing factor to the rapid growth of regional Islamisation there.
More problems are expected in the future from jihadis in Sri Lanka, especially since a deliberate negative publicity scheme has connected the anti-Buddhist hate crimes to this network of Islamic jihadis, exposing an organized plot to create internal conflict in the country, which already has high tensions from the rapid Islamisation funded by a criminal underworld of powerful Islamic gangs. From the smaller scale destruction of Buddha statues to the large-scale plot to obliterate ancient relics of Buddhism in Anuradhapura, this network of Islamic terrorists has succeeded in demonstrating its religious hatred of Buddhism. Their evil intentions were to deliberately create a larger religious conflict inside Sri Lanka.
Many questions will undoubtedly be answered in the coming weeks, when the four prisoners have been fully interrogated. The public in Sri Lanka seeks answers to the growing problem of Islamic gangs and jihad activity.
christianblood says
Like they did in Myanmar, the deeply pro-islamic, pro-jihadist West will soon be condemning if Sri Lankan people defend themselves and their Buddhist Temples against jihadist terrorists there! Can’t understand why the Western world adores islamic jihadists everywhere!
gravenimage says
And does christianblood have any proof of this? Of course not–but what does he care?
gravenimage says
Sri Lanka: Major Islamic terror attack thwarted on ancient Buddhist shrines
……………….
Glad it was foiled–but, grimly, there are apt to be more Jihad plots.
Carol the 1st says
Maybe our own religions should start clamoring for an organized military solution to Islam’s ongoing predations. A Jihad Watch article on the 19th (by Akash Bhardwaj) concerned the Hindu/muslim strife in Kashmir plus the very threatening muslim pockets throughout India. Having just watched a great documentary on Buddhism I dared to suggest that Buddhism (rather than Hinduism) seemed to have all the ingredients to capture the minds and imaginations of modern-day man (even agnostice) and thus could possibly enable India (and other nations) to more coherently and unashamedly defend themselves from Islam. Here’s a link to the documentary:
Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World. HD (English Subtitle)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM9VFFL9b1E&feature=player_embedded