The intelligence reports have revealed that another Sri Lanka bomber, Mohammad Mubarak Azaan, visited India twice in 2017. Azaan is the second bomber whose links with India surfaced after an Indian media report stated that Zahran Hashim, the mastermind behind the deadly attacks, had travelled to India and received training there.
As of now, it is suspected that Azaan blew himself up at one of the three churches targeted on April 21. Sri Lankan authorities are yet to disclose the names of all the nine bombers. Indian authorities also declined to share details about the purpose of Azaan’s visits to India, the people he was in touch with and the places he travelled to during the two trips. More than 100 followers of Hashim’s Facebook page are being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), said an official, who asked not to be named.
Security officials of both countries have said Hashim visited India in 2017 and remained in the country for a few months, during which his activities attracted the attention of security agencies.
Sri Lankan investigators, however, have identified nine suicide bombers, including a woman. “We are looking into the ISIS angle. We also suspect that some of those radical youth were indoctrinated and trained in India, possibly Tamil Nadu,” the senior official said, on condition of anonymity.
Earlier this week, locals told The Hindu that Zahran had left the town two years ago after a fierce disagreement with the Moulavi (religious scholar) on the practice of Islam. He was absconding since then, community leaders said.
Hashim, a second official said, broke away from TNTJ to form the NTJ and started preaching a violent form of Islam in Sri Lanka. Investigators suspect this is when he might have come in contact with ISIS leaders.
The second official said Sri Lanka has traced the movement of at least three senior IS members who entered the island from West Asian countries in 2018.
Hashim was instrumental in radicalising seven alleged IS activists in a Coimbatore module, according to the findings of a probe by the NIA. The agency found several videos featuring Hashim in the electronic devices of the suspects in Coimbatore, who were arrested last September. An analysis of these video led investigators to believe Hashim was planning “something big” in Sri Lanka. On the basis of this information from NIA, Indian authorities alerted their Sri Lankan counterparts about possible attacks on April 4.
Hashim is also suspected to have been involved in a smuggling racket between Ramanathapuram on India’s eastern coast and Kalpitiya on the north-western coast of Sri Lanka. “The probe is at an initial stage but we have found the travel records of Azaan and Hashim which confirm they travelled from Sri Lanka to India,” said an officer. Agencies are in touch with Sri Lanka to get more details on Azaan.
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