Sri Lanka bombings live: Sri Lankan government had 'prior information' about attacks

[brooklynite]

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe said the government had some "prior information of the attack" but there was an inadequate response from emergency services and the military.

The Prime Minister called for an inquiry into how the information was used, and also said the government needs to look at the international links of a local militant group.

French agency Agence France Presse reported it had seen documents showing Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers 10 days ago, warning that suicide bombers planned to hit "prominent churches". He cited a foreign intelligence service as reporting that a little- known Islamist group was involved.






Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/sri-lanka-bombings-live-bomb-detonated-on-road-to-colombo-airport-20190422-p51g12.html

[at140]

1. Where did the Islamist group originate?

Was it from Pakistan?

[karynnj]

2. May be home grown

There are Sri Lankan Tamil Muslims. During the Sri Lankan civil war, many of these people, living in Northern Sri Lanka, were given 24 hours to leave the areas they had lived in for centuries, by the Tamil Tigers, who were Hindu. The reason was not anything they did, but that the Tigers feared that they could be a vector thru which the Buddhist controlled government could get information from that area.

My daughter, a Holy Cross world religion major studied in Sri Lanka for spring semester 2008. (As parents, we were scared when a Norwegian brokered ceasefire ended shortly after she arrived - the only impact on her was that the "line" above which the State Department said Americans should not travel was moved further south - so, when we came as she was finishing her study meant that we could not travel to one of the ancient cites that she really wanted to show us.)

For her independent study, she choose to go to Puttalam To do her independent study. Puttalam is a Muslim majority town in the part of Sri Lanka then controlled by the government. The program found an Islamic family (locally important) and funded a translator for her so she could speak to the refugees. She had learned Sinhalese as part of the program, but they spoke Tamil.

What I know from this is that there is a native Islamic population that has been there for centuries. I also know that some were - through no fault of their own - internal refugees for decades. When my daughter was there some of the people in refugee camps had been there for over 18 years.

I also know that at least at that the even among non refugees, many of the young people were recruited to take jobs (including things like engineering jobs) in rich Middle Eastern countries receiving more money than they could earn in Sri Lanka.

I have no idea how the people displaced by the Civil War were treated after the war ended. I think either a foreign root to the terrorism or local disaffection could be the cause.

[at140]

3. Thank you for a detailed and informative post!

Terrorism (murdering innocent civilians) is the plague of 21st century.
No matter who is responsible, it should be highest priority to fight it.

[karynnj]

4. Completely agee

I wrote it because I knew what I did -- and also knew what I knew was superficial.

Sri Lanka was a fascinating and beautiful country that we enjoyed spending a week in - even as it was in a civil war. We found the people very nice - and my daughter loved both the Buddhist family she stayed with for I think 4 months and the Muslim family she stayed with for a month. Both went far out of their way to help her. For a world religion major, well versed in both Judaism and Christianity, it would have been hard to find anything better for study abroad.

Also, as she was there in 2008, she saw how fascinated many people were that American could elect an African American as President. She sent me a link to an English ( they are a former British colony) language paper on election night -- many people were ecstatic with the possibility of change. Many noted that a Tamil (the minority there - who the British had favored in the colonial period) could never be elected to lead Sri Lanka at that time.

[MosheFeingold]

5. So what's the beef against Nazarenes?

I understand there was a long running fued between the Hindus and Buddhists, but why did the Islamists attack the minority Nazarene population?

Just basic religious hatred?