IN FOCUS
At least 41,490 international citizens traveled to Syria
and Iraq to join ISIS, according to ICSR; this is at least 50
each month. A total of 41 Sri Lankan Muslims from two
extended families travelled to Iraq and Syria. There were
many individuals who migrated as refugees to Sri Lanka from
Muslim nations in the last several years.
The members of the IS branch that staged the attacks in
Sri Lanka believed in martyrdom. They were educated and
mostly from upper-middle-class families. This is a diff erent
scale and complexity of threat when compared to the LTTE
threat. The extremist bombers were calm. One bomber even
gently holds a child just before his suicide. This shows they
were well trained for months and perhaps years.
Some see this as a retaliation to the Christchurch attack,
which took place last month. The Christchurch footage was
used for election campaigns in Turkey weeks after the attack.
It was used by a political leader to win popular support, which
will further divide the Christian and Muslim communities in
the same way as President Trump’s Muslim ban did soon after
his victory. The danger in such populist acts by politicians
will further polarize and lead towards a clash among two
great civilizations.
Among other global groups, ISIS tentacles reached NTJ
in Sri Lanka in 2017. The spillover from the Baghouz defeat
aff ected Sri Lanka, the Island nation that was at the top of
tourism, ready to participate for Belt and Road 2nd Forum
and celebrate its 10 years of success in eradicating terrorism
this May.
The Sri Lankan attack was the single largest killing in
a day by a terrorist outfi t in the Island’s history. Despite
sophisticated security services the nation possessed during
the three-decade battle, there were intelligence and security
limitations. It was ‘gross national security negligence’ that
the entire nation fell victim to. The answer for this could be
seen as intelligence information was withheld and not fl owing
into political decision makers. Such endemic security failures
were in plain sight, even in the United States over the 9/11
attacks. The CIA found that available intelligence did not
fl ow to political decision makers.
Despite multiple warnings from Indian intelligence before
the attacks took place, the extremist cell NTJ was identifi ed
months and years before by the Islamic community leaders
as a threat.
Steps to Strengthening Military Intelligence
The Sri Lankan government will have to develop several
immediate steps fi rst to strengthen military intelligence and
the handling of cross border intelligence sharing among other
nations as this sort of terrorism requires a multi-pronged,
multi-jurisdictional approach. Secondly, it is necessary to
protect our vulnerable communities who could be targeted
through the spreading misinformation and disinformation
in the social media, which could lead to communal riots.
Religious leaders have a great role in promoting religious
harmony in this environment.
Third, while operational intelligence on arresting the
perpetrators will go on, the analysis of intelligence data will
be an important step towards understanding the root cause
behind the attack. Fourth, a complete post audit of the security
negligence should be done by the government to understand
where the limitations had come from and should be addressed
immediately. The accountability of negligence has to be
pointed out and those responsible should be charged or fi red.
Finally, external support from other nations should be taken
only for intelligence sharing and building capacity to combat
extremism, and not to sign any other security agreements that
could have security implications in the long run.
In the coming months, the deradicalization of the
radicalized youth will be another essential part we would
need to invest in. The government and civil society will have a
massive duty in managing the spreading of hatred and division
among diff erent ethnic and religious groups.
A collective eff ort from society is necessary to defeat
extremism.
Just as the manner in which the Sri Lankan Muslim society
assisted to defeat the LTTE, they will assist in defeating
extremism within the island. The simplest act of kindness
and service from each one of us to reclaim unity will be an
honor to respect the lives we lost in 4/21.
Sri Lanka will respond to terror with strength and hope-
more unifi ed than ever before.
* Author is Director General of the National Security
Think Tank of Sri Lanka (INSSSL) under the Sri Lanka
Defence Ministry, author of “Sri Lanka at crossroads (2019).
Views expressed are author’s own.
64 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 4 • April-May 2019, Noida