NYT: India warned Sri Lanka of terror attack several times

[kris]

As early as April 4, the Indians provided the Sri Lankans with cellphone numbers and information about Mr. Zaharan and his lieutenants who they said were planning suicide attacks on Catholic churches and the Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka, several Sri Lankan and Indian officials said.

That's pin point intelligence report

 

[Mav3rick]

1. It only matters if U.N or security council like org. think of P.M, you and your country`s opinion not at all.
2. What Indian thinks also doesnot matter, what matters is supreme court verdict.
3. No he not known as butcher of Gujarat, may be in Pakistan , not here.
4.No he was not involved and there is no proof to substantiate that claim. Read no. 2 point

Countries change their opinions and so does the UN. Recall how the Talibaan started with comparisons to the founding fathers of the American nation, were called Terrorists by the US a few decades later and then just another couple of decades later the US is negotiating with the same Talibaan.

Opinions change mate, with time, allegiances and political requirements. But what can never change is fact about the actions of some individual, organization or country.

 

[Chhatrapati]

Sri Lanka can choose what to do and what not to do on intelligence info's. But never appease any community for some votes, they will take a free ride over it and bite you back. Treat everyone equally, no reservation, no special status unless they are some endangered community like the Amerindian tribes.

The one's with special benefits will ask for more and more freebies.

 

[Trango Towers]

India seems to know a lot here. Ummm
But missed Pulwana. Or did it?

 

[SIPRA]

One man's terrorist is another man's hero.

Yes, that is the crux of, at least, the global politics and needs to be understood very well.

And that is precisely, why Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azher are considered heroes in Pakistan.

 

[Tom M]

I don't intend to teach you from start, its difficult. Well for this bit .....

Read that again and imagine me standing in front of you and ordering you "Back to cow dung research".

All that smell must be making you hallucinate.

I ain't take orders buddy, I only give orders. So enjoy the smell yourself and better luck next time.

 

[TruthTheOnlyDefense]

Early warnings from India's intelligence services to Sri Lankan officials ahead of the Easter Sunday bombings were based on information gleaned from an ISIS suspect, it has emerged,

Delhi passed on unusually specific intelligence in the weeks and days leading up to the attacks, Sri Lankan officials have said, and at least some of it was gleaned from material obtained during interrogations of an ISIS suspect arrested in India, an Indian official told CNN.

The suspect gave investigators the name of a man he trained in Sri Lanka, who is associated with a local extremist group implicated in the bombings, the source said.

This is one of the bombers police believe was behind one of the attacks. (9news)

The man, Zahran Hashim, was identified in a video of the purported attackers released Tuesday by ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday killings.

In a statement published by the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq, the group said the attackers were "fighters of the Islamic State."

The involvement of a foreign organization would explain how a previously marginal domestic extremist group blamed for the attacks, National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ), could have pulled off one of the worst terrorist atrocities since 9/11.

The number of casualties could have been even higher. Authorities said that a fourth hotel was among the original targets, but the attack at that location failed.

Officials previously said they found an unexploded pipe bomb near Colombo's international airport.

The suspect pictured moments before the explosion. (9news)

MISSED WARNINGS

As investigators scrambled to track down the bombers' associates, there was growing anger in Sri Lanka at the failure to heed the warnings of India's intelligence service.

The first warning came more than two weeks before the attacks. Sri Lankan officials were told on April 4 of a potential plot to launch suicide attacks against Christian churches and tourist spots, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told reporters on Monday.

The warnings were repeated two days and two hours before the attacks, Senaratne said.

Delhi's information came from the interrogation of an ISIS suspect, the Indian source told CNN.

"While we were investigating ISIS cases, during the interrogation of an accused, he disclosed the name of a man, Zahran Hashim, who is one of the suicide bombers and is associated with NTJ," said the intelligence source in India.

"The suspect said that he played a role in his (Hashim's) radicalisation."

The Indian intelligence source did not specify when the arrest was made.

"Indian intelligence agencies shared their information with their counterparts in Sri Lanka," the source said.

Hashim's name appears on a memo dated April 11 and signed by Sri Lanka's Deputy Inspector General of Police. The memo, a copy of which has been seen by CNN, named Hashim as the leader of the NTJ.

Police at the scene of the one explosions. (9news)

"A certain foreign intelligence service has reported that the leader of the National Tawheed Jamath - NTJ, Mohamed Cassim Mohamed Zahran, also known as Zahran Hashim and his followers - have been planning for suicide attacks within Sri Lanka," the memo reads.

It was circulated widely to a range of security services and some government ministries.

Yesterday, a video released by ISIS showed eight men purported to be the Sri Lankan attackers pledging allegiance to the terror group. All of the men have their hands placed together and are masked, except one.

That man, identified as Zahran Hashim, is "leading them," according to the caption provided by the Amaq news agency.

A senior Sri Lankan official confirmed the unmasked man in the photograph was Hashim. "Zahran is the mastermind of these attacks.

He is the one," said Azath Salley, governor of Sri Lanka's Western Province. "He is the guy who is giving them the ideology and when he talks to people they get convinced," Salley said in an interview with CNN.

This undated image posted by the Islamic State group's Aamaq news agency on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, purports to show Mohammed Zahran, a.k.a. Zahran Hashmi, center, the man Sri Lanka says led the Easter attack that killed over 300 people, as well as other attackers. Sri Lankan authorities have blamed the militant Muslim group National Thowfeek Jamaath for the attack. The Islamic State group released the photo Tuesday to assert its claim on the assault. (Aamaq news agency via AP) (AP/AAP)

In a press conference, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also identified Hashim as part of the plot. "He is expected to be one of the suicide bombers," he said.

Speaking to CNN in Colombo, a former senior police official said the NTJ was known to Sri Lankan authorities for at least two years.

He said the group emerged in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, and was linked to the vandalizing of Buddhist statues.

He said there were indications that the group was growing in size and extremism, and estimated that there are about 100 to 150 members currently in the country.

The former official said the failure to act on intelligence received about the group's plans was "criminally negligent." Specific warnings of the type received by Sri Lanka were "very rare," he said, making the failure to act upon them or spread them more widely even more inexplicable.

St Sebastian's Church was extensively damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. (AP)

INVESTIGATION GATHERS PACE

Sri Lankan officials said they had arrested dozens of suspects in the past two days. But they admitted that some were still at large. At his news conference in Colombo, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told reporters that there are "still people on the run with explosives."

Mr Wickremesinghe said investigators were making "good progress" in the investigation "but they need to identify all the culprits and look at what their network is."

He admitted that the attacks could have been prevented, if intelligence had been properly shared.

"We, if it was known, certainly could have prevented many of the attacks in the churches and have (had) more security in the hotels," Mr Wickremesinghe said.

Sri Lanka has been gripped by political turmoil since the President tried to remove the Prime Minister last year.

The Supreme Court intervened and Mr Wickremesinghe was reinstated, but deep divisions had remained. Ministers have accused the President, who is also the country's Defense Minister, of failing to share the intelligence ahead of the attacks.

Mr Wickremesinghe said that differences between him and the president had been "thrashed out" and that the priority was now to catch any remaining suspects.

President Maithripala Sirisena said he wasn't aware of the advance warnings, and that if he had been, he could have taken the appropriate measures.

"I have to specifically mention that that intelligence was not reported to me by the responsible people," he said in a televised address. "If I had known they had received this intelligence, I could have taken actions accordingly.

Nine people appeared in court after being arrested on suspicion of providing materials used in Sunday's bombs.

The nine were arrested in Wellampitya, a northeastern suburb of Colombo, on Monday. They all worked at a copper factory in the area, according to court papers seen by a source at Colombo Magistrates' Court. They are due back in court on May 6.

By James Griffiths and Swati Gupta

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019

https://www.9news.com.au/world/news...nce-isis/f311daa3-a085-4c24-bc23-db1b4bad64c3

 

[YeBeWarned]

This is amazing to me that how these low life scums use Religion to justify their crimes, when there is no direct reference from Quran or Hadith to kill un-Armed or non combatant civilians . Hoe efficiently they claim that this attack was for the revenge for NZ mosque attack but show me one instance where Prophet Muhammad Pbuh has killed non Combatants that include women and Children let alone in a place of Worship ?

I pray to Allah that all of these Attacks rot in hell for eternity and I wish that they die without the Kalima .

 

[nahtanbob]

This is amazing to me that how these low life scums use Religion to justify their crimes, when there is no direct reference from Quran or Hadith to kill un-Armed or non combatant civilians . Hoe efficiently they claim that this attack was for the revenge for NZ mosque attack but show me one instance where Prophet Muhammad Pbuh has killed non Combatants that include women and Children let alone in a place of Worship ?

I pray to Allah that all of these Attacks rot in hell for eternity and I wish that they die without the Kalima .

sick people will use anything to justify their actions

 

[YeBeWarned]

sick people will use anything to justify their actions

Yes that's right

 

[xyx007]

The US likely work closely with India to counter China's growth in the Indian ocean. Beijing's growing involvement in Sri Lanka also fed New Delhi's longstanding concerns about Chinese encirclement.
In recent easter day bomb blast in Sri Lanka. indicating a proxy war battleground for India-china rivalry.
The US has big-time involvement to support such proxy war and well known in history for howto creating indifference between community by using the local group in the name of religion.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sri-lanka-makes-arrests-in-easter-bombing-attacks-11555918580

 

[Tom M]

The US likely work closely with India to counter China's growth in the Indian ocean. Beijing's growing involvement in Sri Lanka also fed New Delhi's longstanding concerns about Chinese encirclement.
In recent easter day bomb blast in Sri Lanka. indicating a proxy war battleground for India-china rivalry.
The US has big-time involvement to support such proxy war and well known in history for howto creating indifference between community by using the local group in the name of religion.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sri-lanka-makes-arrests-in-easter-bombing-attacks-11555918580

WOW. I bet even if GOD appear in front of some of you guy's and provide the proof yet your sick minds still keep blaming U.S and India. LOL

FYI, it doesn't matter what others think. The Sri-Lankan investigation agencies along with the Interpol is competent enough to unearth the conspiracy as well as any international trails. Lets wait and see where these trails lead to. And I'm damn sure any country or their Intel agencies that may have anything to do with this group will never ever have business as usual with this Island nation for sure in future.

 

[Cash GK]

Early warnings from India's intelligence services to Sri Lankan officials ahead of the Easter Sunday bombings were based on information gleaned from an ISIS suspect, it has emerged,

Delhi passed on unusually specific intelligence in the weeks and days leading up to the attacks, Sri Lankan officials have said, and at least some of it was gleaned from material obtained during interrogations of an ISIS suspect arrested in India, an Indian official told CNN.

The suspect gave investigators the name of a man he trained in Sri Lanka, who is associated with a local extremist group implicated in the bombings, the source said.

This is one of the bombers police believe was behind one of the attacks. (9news)

The man, Zahran Hashim, was identified in a video of the purported attackers released Tuesday by ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday killings.

In a statement published by the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq, the group said the attackers were "fighters of the Islamic State."

The involvement of a foreign organization would explain how a previously marginal domestic extremist group blamed for the attacks, National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ), could have pulled off one of the worst terrorist atrocities since 9/11.

The number of casualties could have been even higher. Authorities said that a fourth hotel was among the original targets, but the attack at that location failed.

Officials previously said they found an unexploded pipe bomb near Colombo's international airport.

The suspect pictured moments before the explosion. (9news)

MISSED WARNINGS

As investigators scrambled to track down the bombers' associates, there was growing anger in Sri Lanka at the failure to heed the warnings of India's intelligence service.

The first warning came more than two weeks before the attacks. Sri Lankan officials were told on April 4 of a potential plot to launch suicide attacks against Christian churches and tourist spots, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told reporters on Monday.

The warnings were repeated two days and two hours before the attacks, Senaratne said.

Delhi's information came from the interrogation of an ISIS suspect, the Indian source told CNN.

"While we were investigating ISIS cases, during the interrogation of an accused, he disclosed the name of a man, Zahran Hashim, who is one of the suicide bombers and is associated with NTJ," said the intelligence source in India.

"The suspect said that he played a role in his (Hashim's) radicalisation."

The Indian intelligence source did not specify when the arrest was made.

"Indian intelligence agencies shared their information with their counterparts in Sri Lanka," the source said.

Hashim's name appears on a memo dated April 11 and signed by Sri Lanka's Deputy Inspector General of Police. The memo, a copy of which has been seen by CNN, named Hashim as the leader of the NTJ.

Police at the scene of the one explosions. (9news)

"A certain foreign intelligence service has reported that the leader of the National Tawheed Jamath - NTJ, Mohamed Cassim Mohamed Zahran, also known as Zahran Hashim and his followers - have been planning for suicide attacks within Sri Lanka," the memo reads.

It was circulated widely to a range of security services and some government ministries.

Yesterday, a video released by ISIS showed eight men purported to be the Sri Lankan attackers pledging allegiance to the terror group. All of the men have their hands placed together and are masked, except one.

That man, identified as Zahran Hashim, is "leading them," according to the caption provided by the Amaq news agency.

A senior Sri Lankan official confirmed the unmasked man in the photograph was Hashim. "Zahran is the mastermind of these attacks.

He is the one," said Azath Salley, governor of Sri Lanka's Western Province. "He is the guy who is giving them the ideology and when he talks to people they get convinced," Salley said in an interview with CNN.

This undated image posted by the Islamic State group's Aamaq news agency on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, purports to show Mohammed Zahran, a.k.a. Zahran Hashmi, center, the man Sri Lanka says led the Easter attack that killed over 300 people, as well as other attackers. Sri Lankan authorities have blamed the militant Muslim group National Thowfeek Jamaath for the attack. The Islamic State group released the photo Tuesday to assert its claim on the assault. (Aamaq news agency via AP) (AP/AAP)

In a press conference, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also identified Hashim as part of the plot. "He is expected to be one of the suicide bombers," he said.

Speaking to CNN in Colombo, a former senior police official said the NTJ was known to Sri Lankan authorities for at least two years.

He said the group emerged in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, and was linked to the vandalizing of Buddhist statues.

He said there were indications that the group was growing in size and extremism, and estimated that there are about 100 to 150 members currently in the country.

The former official said the failure to act on intelligence received about the group's plans was "criminally negligent." Specific warnings of the type received by Sri Lanka were "very rare," he said, making the failure to act upon them or spread them more widely even more inexplicable.

St Sebastian's Church was extensively damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. (AP)

INVESTIGATION GATHERS PACE

Sri Lankan officials said they had arrested dozens of suspects in the past two days. But they admitted that some were still at large. At his news conference in Colombo, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told reporters that there are "still people on the run with explosives."

Mr Wickremesinghe said investigators were making "good progress" in the investigation "but they need to identify all the culprits and look at what their network is."

He admitted that the attacks could have been prevented, if intelligence had been properly shared.

"We, if it was known, certainly could have prevented many of the attacks in the churches and have (had) more security in the hotels," Mr Wickremesinghe said.

Sri Lanka has been gripped by political turmoil since the President tried to remove the Prime Minister last year.

The Supreme Court intervened and Mr Wickremesinghe was reinstated, but deep divisions had remained. Ministers have accused the President, who is also the country's Defense Minister, of failing to share the intelligence ahead of the attacks.

Mr Wickremesinghe said that differences between him and the president had been "thrashed out" and that the priority was now to catch any remaining suspects.

President Maithripala Sirisena said he wasn't aware of the advance warnings, and that if he had been, he could have taken the appropriate measures.

"I have to specifically mention that that intelligence was not reported to me by the responsible people," he said in a televised address. "If I had known they had received this intelligence, I could have taken actions accordingly.

Nine people appeared in court after being arrested on suspicion of providing materials used in Sunday's bombs.

The nine were arrested in Wellampitya, a northeastern suburb of Colombo, on Monday. They all worked at a copper factory in the area, according to court papers seen by a source at Colombo Magistrates' Court. They are due back in court on May 6.

By James Griffiths and Swati Gupta

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019

https://www.9news.com.au/world/news...nce-isis/f311daa3-a085-4c24-bc23-db1b4bad64c3

It was IIndian blackmailing srilanka and now they show this drama ISIS...this is raw try to get hold on srilanka using their proxy ..I hope isi help srilanka

 

[xyx007]

WOW. I bet even if GOD appear in front of some of you guy's and provide the proof yet your sick minds still keep blaming U.S and India. LOL

FYI, it doesn't matter what others think. The Sri-Lankan investigation agencies along with the Interpol is competent enough to unearth the conspiracy as well as any international trails. Lets wait and see where these trails lead to. And I'm damn sure any country or their Intel agencies that may have anything to do with this group will never ever have business as usual with this Island nation for sure in future.

WOW. I bet even if GOD appear in front of some of you guy's and provide the proof yet your sick minds still keep blaming U.S and India. LOL

FYI, it doesn't matter what others think. The Sri-Lankan investigation agencies along with the Interpol is competent enough to unearth the conspiracy as well as any international trails. Lets wait and see where these trails lead to. And I'm damn sure any country or their Intel agencies that may have anything to do with this group will never ever have business as usual with this Island nation for sure in future.

you have already made enough mess in Sri Lanka, Pak Army will help our brother country Sri lanka in such tough time.

 

[Imran Khan]

why its not work in India and Indian occupied Kashmir then?