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Easter Report recommends investigation into Sarah

01 Mar 2021

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on the Easter Sunday Bomb Attacks of April 2019 has recommended that investigations be continued into Pulasthini Mahendran alias Sarah Jasmine, The Morning learnt. The report notes that two witnesses had testified to the PCoI that Sarah, who was initially believed to have died in the explosion and shootout in Saindumarudu on 26 April 2019, was seen alive, and that she had subsequently fled to India. Sarah is the wife of the Katuwapitiya St. Sebastian Church bomber Atchi Mohomadu Mohomadu Hasthun. The report notes that Abdul Cader Fathima Hadiya, the wife of National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ) leader Zaharan Hashim, had testified that, following the attack in Saindumaradu on 26 April 2019, she lost consciousness, and when she regained consciousness, she could faintly hear a female voice much like Sarah’s. Further, the report states that the DNA analysis conducted against samples collected from Sarah’s mother did not establish that she had died in the Saindamarudu attack. It was reported on 17 July 2020 that security sources said that there has been no information that Sarah had fled the country after the attack. However, on 21 July 2020, PCoI Police Unit Chief Inspector (CI) Arjuna Mahinkanda had informed the commission that the Police had found sufficient evidence to confirm that Sarah, who was originally Hindu and had embraced Islam in 2015, had fled to India by sea in September 2019. A witness had testified that he spotted Sarah near the village of Mankadu on the Batticaloa-Kalmunai main road. CI Mahinkanda said that an officer attached to the Kalauwanchikudy Police Station, whom the above witness had spotted in a vehicle with Sarah in September, had been identified as Abubakar, the Officer-in- Charge (OIC) of the Kalawanchikudi Police Transport Division. He added that Abubakar was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD), and that two other people with Sarah in the vehicle were identified as the husband of her aunt, and his brother.  While one of them had been arrested, the other was revealed to have gone abroad, said CI Mahinkanda. He further said that evidence was available to conclude that Sarah had escaped to India on a boat from Mannar, and that it was discovered that a powerful person in the area had assisted her. Testifying before the PCoI, an official attached to the State Intelligence Service (SIS) had said that it was likely that Indian intelligence had received prior warnings about the Easter attack through someone from the inner circle of NTJ, and that investigations are being carried out to determine whether Sarah was this source of information. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) said on Friday (26) that sufficient attention has not been given by the PCoI on Easter Attacks to Sarah Jasmine's escape to India. “Pulasthini Mahendran, the wife of a suicide bomber, had stayed hidden in Batticaloa for a long while, and fled to India. The inquiry has not paid attention to this, and has ignored information that could have been discovered if the inquiry has done otherwise,” it said. The SLFP said thatan official from the National Intelligence Unit had revealed in July 2020 that Sarah Jasmine had tipped off the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of India on the attacks. United National Party member Saman Rathnapriya said that the commission had not summoned and questioned Sarah, as they should have, and that they did not make a diplomatic request for her to be extradited for this purpose. Further, Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP S.M. Marikkar had said that the PCoI report contains no mention of Sarah Jasmine.


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