A post opinion to recent Islamists Terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.
A post opinion to recent Islamists Terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.
Recent series of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday 2019 (21 April 2019), which killed at least 253 people and injured 485 others, confuses me more than ever as the entire story still doesn't add up after many days.
The evidence shows that the local radical Islamic group and local jihadists are to be blamed for the terrorist attack, who are said to have contacts and links with international terrorism and the Islamic state. Though it is clear that there was an influence from the IS behind the attack, it is hard to believe that the attack was any retaliation or a revenge to the Christchurch incident in New Zealand as some would like to claim. Pre-attack intels and the evidence found after the attack shows that the attack was long planed and even well before the Christchurch incident on 15 March 2019. According to some sources the intel gathered on a possible attack in Sri Lanka goes way back in 2016. Immediately after the incident Sri Lankan government had to accept, that they were aware of the intel but underestimated the possibility of a coordinated attack on its capital. The government has some Muslim coalition partners, who are said to have links to the extremist group Thowheeth Jama'ath. Some opposition news says that the government tried to send a goodwill gesture to its coalition partners by underestimating the threats. They claim the governments assessment of the situation was too naive.
It is still difficult to assume, that a massive attack in Sri Lanka in such dimensions, would add any additional weight or importance to any Islamic terror organization for its ongoing conflict with the West. Such an attack would need a vast amount of resources and time to plan. Even if the IS wanted to attack Sri Lanka just to hurt the West, they could have easily done it by targeting some luxury resorts along the coasts of Sri Lanka without sacrificing its all capacity and most of their identities. The reason to target the capital and the churches is confusing. And the combination of the hotels is more confusing. If the prime motivation of the attack was religious and the target was indeed the capital of Sri Lanka which may have already fulfilled, why not the majority (70%) Buddhists or their temples? Though there is an ongoing conflict between ultra conservative Buddhist groups and radical Muslim groups in the island, the attack was carefully designed to avoid any Buddhists Temples. There were many incidents and hard evidence to show there is an ongoing conflict between Islamists groups and extreme Buddhists groups in Sri Lanka. Anti-Muslim violence and riots led by extreme Buddhists are not new to Sri Lanka. At the moment it is safe to assume that the extreme Islamists in Sri Lanka started getting attention from some IS fractions and gained the sympathy from the rest of the Muslim world after the news has spread like a wild fire about Anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka in 2014.
But even after many days since the Colombo attack, the big question still arises is, why the catholic church on a catholic holiday when they clearly have a conflict with the majority Buddhists. The second unclear fact is why the attack was included some luxury hotels in the capital. Though some unofficial sources reports that the IS has taken the responsibility after few days from the attack, the message of the attack is still unclear. It seams the IS hesitated to take the responsibility in the first few days, and maybe IS was not even aware of the attack as it took place in Colombo which is rather not an attracted place for such an Anti-West terrorist organisation. It seems that this attack was not just revenge or a cowardly try to hurt some innocent non Muslims, but it was carrying out another hidden task as well. The nature of this attack shows, that it was well designed to target the economy of the poor nation which mainly depends on the service sector (61.7%) such as tourism.
The series of attacks was apparently planned to meet the highest number of victims possible. The churches were attacked during Easter services, the hotel restaurants during breakfast. The first six explosions were carried out by suicide bombers. To carry out such a coordinated attack in many places simultaneously, the local radical Muslims in Sri Lanka need a carefully designed plan and lots of funding and support from a lager organisation. It obvious not to believe that the local extremists Muslim group Thowheeth Jama'ath was not capable and did not have the capacity to design or coordinate to execute such an insurgency in Sri Lanka by themselves. It is not a secret that Sri Lanka has few economic rivals in the region. A peaceful Sri Lanka would always be an economic threat to few south and south Asian economies. Some global and regional powers clearly do not appreciate the Chinese presence in the island nation in the middle of the Indian Ocean. China has massively invested in many parts of the island in a number of infrastructure projects. Geographical location of this Commonwealth member country is a quite important tactical position for many powerful nations. The location of the island is specially vital for China since they do not have a port with the full access to Indian Ocean. After decades long civil war with Tamil militant groups Sri Lanka was slowly coming in to the right path of the economic prosperity. Since the end of civil war in 2009 gaining the attraction of many foreign investments. The current immediate danger is, with the new situation the anti-Muslims extreme Buddhists groups are thrilled by the fact that they finally gained the reason and the golden chance to hit the Muslim minority hard in general. Many of their social media pages are already over joyed about an up coming war.
Sri Lanka is obviously too corrupted to run a proper transparent investigation on the attack. They would need some international aid to coordinate a thorough investigation and to stop any possible future terrorist attack on it soils. The USA inviting themselves in to the situation as 4 of their citizens were killed by the attack, would definitely make things bit more complicated in the region. It is still bit early to predict, how China would react in an unstable Sri Lanka. As well as India is not happy with a the Chinese presence in the neighboring island they would also not be happy with a military presence from the US. Without the helping hand from India and China Sri Lanka might have to push it self to the west wing of current global politic. This attack surely change the geopolitics once again in South Asia.
At the end of the day, in Christchurch or in Colombo, whether it is geopolitical power struggle or utter religious stupidity, all victims were innocent people.
Pemil Peduru
Recent series of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday 2019 (21 April 2019), which killed at least 253 people and injured 485 others, confuses me more than ever as the entire story still doesn't add up after many days.
The evidence shows that the local radical Islamic group and local jihadists are to be blamed for the terrorist attack, who are said to have contacts and links with international terrorism and the Islamic state. Though it is clear that there was an influence from the IS behind the attack, it is hard to believe that the attack was any retaliation or a revenge to the Christchurch incident in New Zealand as some would like to claim. Pre-attack intels and the evidence found after the attack shows that the attack was long planed and even well before the Christchurch incident on 15 March 2019. According to some sources the intel gathered on a possible attack in Sri Lanka goes way back in 2016. Immediately after the incident Sri Lankan government had to accept, that they were aware of the intel but underestimated the possibility of a coordinated attack on its capital. The government has some Muslim coalition partners, who are said to have links to the extremist group Thowheeth Jama'ath. Some opposition news says that the government tried to send a goodwill gesture to its coalition partners by underestimating the threats. They claim the governments assessment of the situation was too naive.
It is still difficult to assume, that a massive attack in Sri Lanka in such dimensions, would add any additional weight or importance to any Islamic terror organization for its ongoing conflict with the West. Such an attack would need a vast amount of resources and time to plan. Even if the IS wanted to attack Sri Lanka just to hurt the West, they could have easily done it by targeting some luxury resorts along the coasts of Sri Lanka without sacrificing its all capacity and most of their identities. The reason to target the capital and the churches is confusing. And the combination of the hotels is more confusing. If the prime motivation of the attack was religious and the target was indeed the capital of Sri Lanka which may have already fulfilled, why not the majority (70%) Buddhists or their temples? Though there is an ongoing conflict between ultra conservative Buddhist groups and radical Muslim groups in the island, the attack was carefully designed to avoid any Buddhists Temples. There were many incidents and hard evidence to show there is an ongoing conflict between Islamists groups and extreme Buddhists groups in Sri Lanka. Anti-Muslim violence and riots led by extreme Buddhists are not new to Sri Lanka. At the moment it is safe to assume that the extreme Islamists in Sri Lanka started getting attention from some IS fractions and gained the sympathy from the rest of the Muslim world after the news has spread like a wild fire about Anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka in 2014.
But even after many days since the Colombo attack, the big question still arises is, why the catholic church on a catholic holiday when they clearly have a conflict with the majority Buddhists. The second unclear fact is why the attack was included some luxury hotels in the capital. Though some unofficial sources reports that the IS has taken the responsibility after few days from the attack, the message of the attack is still unclear. It seams the IS hesitated to take the responsibility in the first few days, and maybe IS was not even aware of the attack as it took place in Colombo which is rather not an attracted place for such an Anti-West terrorist organisation. It seems that this attack was not just revenge or a cowardly try to hurt some innocent non Muslims, but it was carrying out another hidden task as well. The nature of this attack shows, that it was well designed to target the economy of the poor nation which mainly depends on the service sector (61.7%) such as tourism.
The series of attacks was apparently planned to meet the highest number of victims possible. The churches were attacked during Easter services, the hotel restaurants during breakfast. The first six explosions were carried out by suicide bombers. To carry out such a coordinated attack in many places simultaneously, the local radical Muslims in Sri Lanka need a carefully designed plan and lots of funding and support from a lager organisation. It obvious not to believe that the local extremists Muslim group Thowheeth Jama'ath was not capable and did not have the capacity to design or coordinate to execute such an insurgency in Sri Lanka by themselves. It is not a secret that Sri Lanka has few economic rivals in the region. A peaceful Sri Lanka would always be an economic threat to few south and south Asian economies. Some global and regional powers clearly do not appreciate the Chinese presence in the island nation in the middle of the Indian Ocean. China has massively invested in many parts of the island in a number of infrastructure projects. Geographical location of this Commonwealth member country is a quite important tactical position for many powerful nations. The location of the island is specially vital for China since they do not have a port with the full access to Indian Ocean. After decades long civil war with Tamil militant groups Sri Lanka was slowly coming in to the right path of the economic prosperity. Since the end of civil war in 2009 gaining the attraction of many foreign investments. The current immediate danger is, with the new situation the anti-Muslims extreme Buddhists groups are thrilled by the fact that they finally gained the reason and the golden chance to hit the Muslim minority hard in general. Many of their social media pages are already over joyed about an up coming war.
Sri Lanka is obviously too corrupted to run a proper transparent investigation on the attack. They would need some international aid to coordinate a thorough investigation and to stop any possible future terrorist attack on it soils. The USA inviting themselves in to the situation as 4 of their citizens were killed by the attack, would definitely make things bit more complicated in the region. It is still bit early to predict, how China would react in an unstable Sri Lanka. As well as India is not happy with a the Chinese presence in the neighboring island they would also not be happy with a military presence from the US. Without the helping hand from India and China Sri Lanka might have to push it self to the west wing of current global politic. This attack surely change the geopolitics once again in South Asia.
At the end of the day, in Christchurch or in Colombo, whether it is geopolitical power struggle or utter religious stupidity, all victims were innocent people.
Pemil Peduru
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