Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Leader, Udaya Gammanpila, claimed that, according to his findings, the mastermind behind the Easter Sunday terror attacks on 21 April 2019 is the Islamist militant and founder of the National Thowheeth Jama’ath, Zahran Hashim.

He asserted this yesterday (31) in Colombo during the launch of his book, Pasku Praharaye Mahamolakaru Soyayema (In Search of the Mastermind of the Easter Attacks). He rejected claims made by various parties, including the international media, that the bombings were planned to create a suitable political environment to bolster former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Presidential Election campaign.

He detailed that Hashim, the person believed to have conducted a series of coordinated suicide attacks on churches and hotels that killed 269 people and injured approximately 500, had been a part of the Islamic State (IS), a transnational militant extremist group that acts with the aim of erasing modern international borders to unite the Muslim world under its authority. He added that although the attacks were planned to be launched at the last Randoli perahera (procession) in August 2021, Hashim launched the attack in April following commands by the Leader of the IS to take revenge on Christians after an incident in New Zealand.

Gammanpila also alleged that Hashim had about 300 followers and nothing has been done to identify them or rehabilitate them.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Spokesperson, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, responding to a question at the weekly Cabinet of Ministers media briefing yesterday, said that as the investigation into the 2019  Easter Sunday attacks moves in a certain direction, it is not surprising that various individuals and groups become unsettled. “As a person in the legal field and also as a former Parliamentarian, Gammanpila would have an understanding of this matter.

However, if there is anything new in the book that is not already known to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), they will take steps to look into it”.