Category: Breaking News

The All Ceylon Union of Muslim League Youth Fronts (ACUMLYF) has requested K. Navas Kani, MP, of the Indian Union of Muslim League (IUML) to inquire into the high profile case of four Sri Lankans taken into custody in Gujarat on terrorism charges during the Indian general elections in May-June this year.

Identifying the four persons taken into custody on May 19 at the Ahmedabad airport as Mohammad Nusrat, Mohammad Nafran, Mohammad Rashdeen and Mohammad Faris, the grouping’s President Sham Nawaz told The Island that they were seriously concerned about the police here asking the families of the detained whether their loved ones returned home.

The newly-elected National People’s Power (NPP) should take up this issue with India at the highest level, Nawaz emphasised the responsibility on the part of India to explain the current status of the investigation as the previous Sri Lankan government, in no uncertain terms, cleared all four of any connection with ISIS, or connected with religious extremism.

Nawaz said that he also brought the matter to the notice of Prof. K. M. Cader Mohideen, President, IUML, and was confident that an effort would be made to ascertain the truth. The arrests were made by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad.

Asked whether ACUMLYF received anticipated attention from the government here, Nawaz said that they were given an opportunity to meet the then State Foreign Minister Tharaka Balasuriya in the first week of June. “In spite of assurances given, the Foreign Ministry never bothered at least to get back to us. We are quite confident that they were on business visits. And there is absolutely no basis for accusations that they were involved in religious extremism,” Nawaz said.

Responding to another query, Nawaz said that perhaps the Gujarat arrests may not receive the attention during formal talks between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Premier Narendra Modi this week but it shouldn’t be allowed to be forgotten under any circumstances.

“They must be either charged or released,” Nawaz said, adding that the Muslim community here shouldn’t be allowed to be targeted and humiliated over their alleged allegiance to ISIS, particularly in the wake of the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage.

Nawaz pointed out that some media reports, soon after the arrests, suggested that they arrived in India to cause mayhem during the general election.

Nawaz emphasized that their effort shouldn’t be misinterpreted as an attempt to intervene on behalf of a group dubbed as terrorists.

Sri Lanka should represent the interests of the detained persons in terms of the Vienna Convention on consular assistance.

Pointing out the conflicting claims regarding the arrests, Nawaz asked whether India gave Sri Lankan authorities access to the suspects

Asked whether the families of the detained, or some other interested party sought their intervention, or he knew them personally, Nawaz emphasized that ACUMLYE stepped-in on its own.

Nawaz said that the delegation stressed the need for an independent local investigation as many raised doubts over the continuing allegations regarding the ISIS operations here.

Such fears impacted the economy in many ways, Nawaz said, reiterating the responsibility on the part of the government to conduct no holds barred investigation into the allegations made by Indian authorities.

Contrary to repeated declarations in Indian media that the four arrested at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel airport, in Ahmedabad, had been linked to ISIS and coordinated by a Pakistani handler, investigations conducted by Sri Lankan authorities contradicted the Indian findings, Nawaz said.

Nawaz said that the recently conducted presidential and general elections caused further delays. Unfortunately, the new government, too, seemed slow on this matter hence our decision to seek the assistance of the IMUL to take up the issue at hand.

The Indian media quoted Gujarat Director General of Police Vikas Sahay as having said that the suspects told investigators that they had been earlier associated with the banned Sri Lankan radical militant outfit, National Thowheeth Jamaath (NJT), and joined IS after getting in touch with Pakistani handler Abu Bakr Al Bagdadi.

The NTJ has been blamed for the Easter Sunday attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 270, including 11 Indians. Following the arrests made by Gujarat authorities, several persons were arrested here over their alleged involvement with the four. Nawaz said that the government should set the record straight regarding the alleged Gujarat plot without further delay.

State Intelligence agencies in Sri Lanka are accused of spying and intimidating public welfare organizations that are at the forefront of assisting North and East-based Tamil people who were affected by recent cyclones and floods.

A leading member of the Association for the Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances (ARED), a civil society group created to search for the tens of thousands of people who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict, says even humanitarian operations and help are being threatened by the intelligence agencies which is hampering the relief operations for the affected.

Despite personal losses and extreme mental agony and trauma faced by the ARED members, who are searching for their loved ones who were either handed over or surrendered to the security forces, they say even their small efforts helping the flood-affected are being seen with suspicious eyes as well as being subjected to intimidation by the state intelligence agencies.

Most parts of the North and East were heavily flooded in the recent cyclonic conditions and severe downpours, which have caused floods, throwing the lives of war-affected Tamils out of order whilst thousands of them are yet to get back to their everyday life.

Maria Suresh Eswary, president of the Mullaitivu District ARED, says such actions are intimidating and humiliating. She says the most recent example of such a threat came when they were helping the Tamils affected by heavy floods in the Oddusuddan area.

“The flood-affected did not get any assistance or relief. So four days ago we organized from relief getting help from the diaspora. We packed those relief material in small packs and were getting ready to distribute them. At that time the intelligence officials intervened asking as to who gave that relief material, and what items were in it. This was hugely intimidating”.

She was speaking to the media at the Jaffna Press Club. She accused the government of filming them while distributing relief materials instead of analyzing the damage caused by the floods and organizing help and relief for the affected Tamils.

“The government could have instructed the officials to assess the damages of the flood. But, without doing that, they are filming our activities of what we are doing in the relief operations including what we are distributing and to whom. How can such a government render justice to us? You think for yourselves”.

Mariasuresh Eswari further stressed that Anura Kumara Dissanayaka was elected president due to the Tamil votes. Even after that, intelligence agencies’ activities for the past three months have been very intimidating, and we are under constant surveillance.

“Even though he has not said he would not finish us off, his intelligence agencies act in a threatening manner. District-wise over the past three months, their intimidation has been continuous and increasing”.