This article is the third and final of a trilogy about the coordinated attacks by suicide bombers on the Easter Sunday of 21 April 2019. Young men with explosives targeted three churches and three luxury hotels in what has come to be known as Sri Lanka’s Easter bombings. The explosive attacks in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa resulted in 269 persons including 45 foreign nationals being killed and over 500 sustaining injuries.
Various conspiracy theories have been in circulation for many years about the Easter bombings. Chief among these is the one which alleges that an official or officials of Sri Lanka’s intelligence services had manipulated the misguided Muslim youths into launching the attacks with the ulterior objective of facilitating the return to power of former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President.
This conspiracy theory received a tremendous boost in 2023 when Britain’s Channel 4 TV aired the documentary “Sri Lanka’s Easter bombings” in its “Dispatches” program on Tuesday 5 September 2023. Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyaan’s former secretary and ex-TMVP spokesperson Mohammed Milhilar Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana was the whistleblower who made the controversial disclosures about his erstwhile boss.
Whistleblower Azad Maulana (spelled as Mowlana and Moulana also) hailing from Maruthamunai in the Eastern Province had reportedly fled to Europe and sought political asylum in Switzerland.
Appearing on TV in 2023, Azad Maulana made some startling disclosures against former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, State Intelligence Service head Maj-Gen Suresh Sallay and Rural Road Development State Minister Chanthrakanthan known widely as Pillaiyaan. Several allegations were levelled in the documentary concerning the April 2019 Easter bombings and the murders allegedly committed by the Government sanctioned killer squad “Tripoly Platoon”. Gotabaya, Suresh and Pillaiyaan have all denied the allegations. Furthermore Maulana has been accused of concocting a false story to help him gain political asylum abroad.
In recent times there has been a lot of interest in the man known as Azad Maulana. There is much speculation in the media that Azad Maulana is being interviewed by Sri Lankan officials regarding the Easter bombings. It is also being suggested that he would soon give evidence in Sri Lanka regarding the Easter bombings.
It is against this backdrop that this column – with the aid of earlier writings – has been focusing on Azad Maulana in this trilogy. The first article was published on 18 April 2025 under the heading “TMVP leader Pillaiyaan’s arrest, 2019 Easter bombings and Azad Maulana’s revelations”. The second article was published under the heading “Easter bombings conspiracy theories and importance of Azad Maulana’s testimony”. In this third article the focus would be on how and why Azad Maulana allegedly left Sri Lanka and became a refugee in the West.
Trilogy of articles
I have not been able to converse directly with Azad Maulana so far but have been communicating with several informed sources ranging from residents of his village Maruthamunai to activists from International non-governmental organisations familiar with all aspects of his case. The three articles in this series have been pieced together on the basis of information gathered from these informed sources.
At the outset, it must be emphasised that all allegations made by Azad Maulana on Channel 4 TV are yet to be verified and authenticated. Moreover, they have been denied as falsehoods by those whom the allegations were levelled against especially Maj-Gen Sallay.
The charge made against Sallay by Maulana hinges around an alleged meeting at Karadippooval in Puttalam between the intelligence chief and Zahran Hashim the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) leader and livewire behind the Easter bombings.
Maulana’s allegation as stated in the documentary is essentially conjecture and inference based on that meeting.
However, it must be said in fairness to Suresh Sallay that he has denied being in Sri Lanka at the time of the meeting
Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyaan
As stated earlier, Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana had bourgeoned into being an indispensable aide to Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyaan. He was Pillaiyaan’s personal secretary as well as spokesperson of the TMVP. Maulana being reasonably proficient in Tamil, English and Sinhala was the interpreter cum translator on whom the monolingual Pillaiyaan relied upon when dealing with certain political leaders, senior Government officers, and security and intelligence officials.
When Pillaiyaan was incarcerated for five years over the killing of Batticaloa MP Joseph Pararajasingham, it was Azad who visited Pillaiyan regularly with Court permission. When in Batticaloa, Maulana would visit Pillaiyaan on a daily basis. Maulana conveyed what was happening within TMVP circles to Pillaiyan and also passed on Pillaiyaan’s instructions to party members. Maulana also coordinated all legal work regarding Pillaiyaan’s case.
Everything was hunky-dory for Hanzeer until the fateful Easter Sunday bombings of April 2019. According to Maulana, he was remorseful when it became known that Zahran and other NTJ operatives were responsible for the heinous attacks on churches and tourist hotels.
As Hanzeer claimed in the Channel 4 documentary, he had purportedly arranged a first meeting between Sallay and Zahran. He also claimed that Suresh Sallay had telephoned him on the day of the bombing and asked him to transport someone from the Taj Samudra Hotel.
Hanzeer could not do so as he was in Batticaloa then. It was learnt later that the person at Taj Samudra was the bomber who died in the Dehiwela hotel explosion.
When he met Pillaiyaan in jail after the bombings, the TMVP leader had supposedly told him to keep quiet about all this and to speak to no one about it.
In 2019 November Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected President. In the aftermath of the bombings, the electorate yearned for a strong man to keep the country safe.
Bombers-officials nexus
Months after the April 2019 Easter bombings, the political grapevine had been buzzing about suspected links between the National Thowheed Jamath bombers and high officials in Sri Lanka’s intelligence services. Popular gossip was about a possible nexus between Government officials and the Islamic bombers. It was rumoured that the Easter attacks were a conspiracy to bring Gota to power. Conspiracy theories are galore in Sri Lanka and there were few takers for this then.
In March 2021 during a debate in Parliament, then opposition MPs Anura Kumara Dissanayake (JVP) and Manusha Nanayakkara (SJB) made several allusions about top intelligence officials being implicated in the Easter bombing conspiracy. In April 2021 the then SJB Parliamentarian Harin Fernando made several sensational disclosures in Parliament about the alleged involvement of a high intelligence officer in the April 2019 attacks.
Harin Fernando was careful not to mention names explicitly, but it was inferred that the references were to Major-General Suresh Sallay the head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS). Sallay had been earlier the chief of Military Intelligence. He served as Minister Counsellor in Sri Lanka’s High Commission in Malaysia after the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government gained power in 2015. In 2019 Suresh Sallay went to India for a course in defence studies and was in New Delhi when the Easter bombings took place.
International webinar
In October 2021 there was an international webinar held over Zoom about the Easter Sunday attacks. The Catholic Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and the well-known catholic Clergyman Fr. Cyril Gamini participated in the discussions. Some of the comments made alluded to the alleged involvement of Maj-Gen Suresh Sallay in the bombings. Subsequently, Gen. Sallay filed a defamation lawsuit against Fr. Cyril Gamini alleging that some of the remarks made by the clergyman had tarnished his (Sallay’s) reputation.
Gen. Suresh Sallay
A few days after the webinar, Gen. Suresh Sallay telephoned Hanzeer Azad Maulana and wanted to meet him. Azad Maulana met Sallay on 15 October 2021. According to Maulana, Sallay had played video clips of the Parliamentary speeches by Harin Fernando and other opposition MPs to Hanzeer. He had also shown clips of the webinar comments by Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and Fr. Cyril Gamini.
The SIS director had then allegedly told Hanzeer, “Only you, I and Pillaiyaan know about my meeting Zahran and other NTJ members. Did you reveal this to others? Why are the MPs and Catholic priests making these accusations linking me with the bombers?”
According to Hanzeer, he had denied telling anyone else about the Puttalam meeting. Sallay had then checked Hanzeer’s cell phone. After about three hours of verbal interrogation, Sallay allowed Hanzeer to leave.
Azad Maulana says he was deeply disturbed and distressed by this ordeal. He had never seen Suresh Sallay being so angry and tough. Hanzeer telephoned Pillaiyaan in Batticaloa and told him of what had happened. The TMVP leader had told him not to worry and that he was coming to Colombo the following day and would meet Sallay and sort it out. Pillaiyaan arrived in Colombo the next day 16 October 2021.
It had been the usual practice for Hanzeer to accompany Pillaiyan when he went to meet Sallay. But on this occasion, Pillaiyaan met Sallay without Hanzeer. It was through Pillaiyaan’s driver Amalan that Hanzeer got to know Pillaiyaan had met Sallay. Pillaiyaan later told Hanzeer that Suresh Sallay was suspicious of him (Hanzeer) for leaking information about the purported Zahran meeting.
“Bogus” accident
Pillaiyan asked Azad Maulana to come to Batticaloa for a meeting on 17 October 2021. Before his departure, Hanzeer says he got a call from a Muslim friend in an intelligence unit. He had warned Maulana that there was a plot to kill him through a bogus “accident” in Batticaloa and advised him not to go. Maulana had then told Pillaiyaan that he had fallen sick suddenly and could not come to Batticaloa.
Azad Maulana was now worried about his life being in danger from the TMVP and/or intelligence. He decided to escape from Sri Lanka. Realising that delaying his departure from Sri Lanka could endanger his life, Azad Maulana went to India first. He reportedly left Sri Lanka for India on 19 October 2021.
Switzerland visa
Hanzeer Azad Maulana’s intention was to seek a humanitarian visa from Switzerland. Switzerland grants humanitarian visas to individuals on the following grounds.
The individual’s life and physical integrity are directly, seriously and tangibly endangered in their home country or country of origin.
The individual is clearly in direct danger and not merely at risk because they belong to a potentially endangered group.
The individual no longer has any other options and their situation requires the urgent intervention of the Swiss authorities.
Subsequently Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana flew to Europe and sought political asylum. It is learnt that an international human rights organisation based in Geneva was of great assistance to Azad Maulana in relocating to Europe.
Statement to OHCHR
After moving to Europe, Azad Maulana went to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and made a detailed statement to a panel from the OHCHR Sri Lanka Accountability project. He took five days to testify. The Project mandate is “to collect, consolidate, analyse and preserve information and evidence and to develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka, to advocate for victims and survivors, and to support relevant judicial and other proceedings, including in Member States, with competent jurisdiction”.
Apart from the OHCHR, Maulana has also made statements to several other human rights organisations and international NGOs. It is learnt that though Maulana fled from Lanka in a hurry he took along with him much “material evidence” relating to several war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations. Apparently what was revealed in the Channel 4 film was only the tip of the iceberg.
Testimony
It could be seen therefore that Azad Maulana has the capacity and potential to provide much information regarding the 21 April 2019 attacks. The importance of Azad Maulana’s testimony – to prove or disprove the “Easter bombings for Gota victory” conspiracy theory – is being increasingly recognised.
At the same time there is growing realisation that the allegations made by Azad Maulana would be worthless in practical terms in a court of law until and unless Azad Maulana himself backs it up by testifying himself in a Sri Lankan tribunal and being cross examined by lawyers. He could even do this from afar by electronic methods too. Hence many people especially some representatives of the Catholic Church are now demanding that Azad Maulana should be questioned or probed on what he has told the UK Channel 4 TV.
The problem here is that Azad Maulana is not willing to cooperate with the Sri Lankan judicial system alone. He is willing to testify only before an independent international investigation. The 25 April 2025 article by this writer in the “Political Pulse” column related in detail, the statements made by Azad Maulana on Channel 4 and at a public meeting in Geneva.
In those, Azad Maulana clarified his viewpoint explicitly. This is what he said: “As a witness to the planning of several terrorist attacks, political assassinations and kidnappings in Sri Lanka, I am willing to testify in investigations into these crimes. I do not believe, however, that the authorities in Sri Lanka have an interest in revealing the truth. I will therefore only bear witness before an international independent investigation.”
Ganemulla Sanjeewa’s fate
It appears therefore that Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana is likely to testify about the Easter bombings in an international investigation only. Under such circumstances the chances of Azad Maulana returning to Sri Lanka and cooperating with the Sri Lankan legal system seems a very remote possibility. Given the fate of Sanjeewa Kumara Samararathne alias ‘Ganemulla Sanjeewa’, can Azad Maulana be faulted for his stance?
(The writer can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com.)
