Former TID Director claims his arrest hampered efforts to squash NTJ

Former Director of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Nalaka De Silva told the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) investigating the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks today (4) that his sudden arrest in October, last year hampered the TID's operations against Easter Sunday attack mastermind Zahran Hashim and his associates.   

By Sandun Jayawardana

Former Director of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Nalaka De Silva told the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) investigating the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks today (4) that his sudden arrest in October, last year hampered the TID's operations against Easter Sunday attack mastermind Zahran Hashim and his associates.   

In his evidence before the PSC, DIG De Silva revealed that Islamist extremist groups had come to the attention of authorities from about 2013/2014. DIG De Silva said he had been Deputy Director in charge of counter-terrorism and counter-extremism of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) at the time. He told the PSC that this was his expertise in these fields that led to then Inspector General of Police (IGP) N.K. Illangakoon to select him to the TID.

The TID had been monitoring Zahran Hashim since about 2016 after he came to their attention for extremist activities, DIG De Silva further said.

"The key is to prevent extremism from going towards violent extremism and then onto terrorism. That was how all terrorist groups, including ISIS came into being," he explained.

DIG De Silva confirmed that the TID obtained an open warrant for Zahran's arrest in July, 2018 as it was concerned that he was moving from extremism towards violent extremism.

"He operated several websites and two Facebook profiles; one under his name and another under a different name.He used these websites and Facebook accounts to post speeches justifying ISIS atrocities and also to share videos posted by ISIS. However, we could not find a direct link between Zahran and ISIS, There was a clash between Zahran's supporters and another group of Muslims in Kattankudy in 2017. We took all this into account and filed a comprehensive B Report at the Colombo Magistrate's Court and obtained an open warrant for his arrest," the DIG stated.

The former TID Director said he took steps to inform the IGP about Zahran on a weekly basis through situation reports. 

Zahran started calling on Muslim youths to carry out violence after the violence targeting Muslims in Digana, last year, he further noted. 

DIG De Silva though, said he is unaware of what happened to investigations into Zahran and his associates after his arrest in October, 2018. When questioned whether he believed his arrest would have halted the investigations into Zahran, DIG De Silva said he did not believe so.

"But the TID would have been affected by losing my leadership as I was the person there who had the most expertise when dealing with violent extremism." 

PSC Member Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka questioned DIG De Silva whether his arrest disrupted the strategy he (De Silva) had towards tackling Zahran and his group, National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). DIG De Silva said he believed so.

"From monitoring his social media and other activities, I deduced that Zahran would cause trouble in future as he was trying to convince Muslim youths to engage in violence. As such, I was taking various measures, including trying to arrest him," he noted. 

DIG De Silva said he even recommended somewhere in 2017 or 2018 that NTJ be banned, though he could not recall exactly when he made the recommendation. 

"If we had been able to arrest him, the next step would be to arrest his associates. If we had been able to do that, then these attacks could definitely have been either prevented or the damage minimized," DIG De Silva claimed.