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Bodu Bala Sena urges vigilance on extremist terrorists

06 Sep 2021

BY Dinitha Rathnayake The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) organisation urged the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to be vigilant in deciding on the arrests of extremist terrorists and the process of the investigations into them, without being influenced by any outside forces. While condemning the knife attack by a Sri Lankan in an Auckland supermarket in New Zealand (NZ) on 3 September which led to critical injuries to several and the shooting of the attacker by the law enforcement authorities, the BBS highlighted the global challenge of identifying religious terrorism before such attacks occur. “Wahhabism and Salafism are said to be the strongest ideologies that have led the world to call Islam a barbaric terrorist religion. To put an end to Islamist extremism, in order to stop the attacks in the name of Islam, organisations with Wahhabi, Salafi, Ikhwan, and Jamaat-e-Islami ideologies, and related non-governmental organisations (NGOs), charity institutions, and educational institutions should be banned and the establishment of new organisations should also be banned accordingly. Also, the import and production of publications and audio visual material with these ideologies should be banned. Action should be taken to ban the use of sermons and books related to these ideologies on the Internet,” it said in a media statement issued yesterday (6). Isolated attacks such as the Auckland attack and planned attacks by extremists such as the Easter Sunday terror attacks in Sri Lanka will not be possible until the above-mentioned measures are taken to put an end to Islamist extremism, the BBS further added. A statement issued by the BBS further read: “A believer who is confused by a religious teaching has the opportunity to become a terrorist at any time and to carry out isolated attacks. Hundreds of such Wahhabi attacks have taken place around the world. Ahmed Adhil Mohamed Samsudeen had been under the New Zealand intelligence watch list well before the attack. But the country’s security forces have had to wait until he launched the attack. “If such a situation arises in Sri Lanka, opportunistic politicians will point the finger at the selfless and sacrificing security forces. Samsudeen was arrested in 2017 by the New Zealand Police. Cases have been filed in the Auckland High Court on a few counts for promoting Islamist terrorism through two Facebook accounts. But human rights (HR) activists and others have advocated for the freedom of speech of Samsudeen. For that reason, the New Zealand security forces were limited only to follow the terrorist and had to wait until the terrorist attack occurred, in order to take action. “This is a situation that our country needs to pay close attention to. Following the arrests of the promoters of Islamist extremism, local and foreign human rights groups have been exerting intense pressure on the Sri Lankan Government. In particular, lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah and poet Ahnaf Jazeem, were pressured to be released. We urge the Government to be vigilant in deciding on the arrests of extremist terrorists and to act solely on the progress of the investigations by the security forces without being influenced by any outside forces.”  


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