Image: Vavunathivu police post that came under attack by Sararan’s group.
Following the revelation of the mystery of Saharan’s T-56 firearm, strong evidence that reveals how military intelligence worked with Saharan has emerged.
Two police officers were killed at the police checkpoint in Vavnathivu during the constitutional coup by President Maithripala Sirisena. Mahinda Rajapaksa was the Prime Minister at that time. DIG Nilantha Jayawardena was the head of the State Intelligence Service.
The attack was an armed rehearsal for Saharan Hashim’s Islamic extremist group. Two police officers, Niroshan Indika Prasanna and Ganesh Dinesh, were killed in the attack. It became clear that neither the LTTE nor its remnant group had anything to do with the attack.
The illegitimate Sirisena-Rajapaksa government wanted to create LTTE terror by concealing the real perpetrators of these killings and passing the blame on to the LTTE. On the other hand, the Saharan Hashim gang, backed by an undercover operatives of intelligence service, also needed more time. That could be the reason that Nilantha Jayawardena attributed this attack to the LTTE.
Saharan Hashim’s driver’s testimony
The most important piece of evidence in a murder investigation is the weapon used in the murder. That is why assassins throw their weapons into rivers or the sea.
After the attack police were unable to locate the T-56 assault rifle used in the Vavunathivu murder. It was discovered following information revealed during the interrogation of Saharan Hashim’s driver after the Easter Sunday attacks. He revealed that the assassination of [two policemen] in Vavunathivu was planned by Saharan Hashim and that the T-56 weapon used in the assassination was hidden in a house in the Saindamarudu area.
Accordingly, this automatic firearm was found on 26 April 2019, five days after the Easter Sunday attack.
Each firearm has a unique number and unique scratch-like marks on the inside of the barrel. Each bullet fired from a firearm has a scratch-like pattern that is similar to the scratch-like pattern inside the gun barrel. Analysts will be able to confirm the weapon used in the murder by the empty bullet shell casings collected from the murder scene.
Analyst reports confirmed that the T-56 automatic weapon found in Saindamarudu house was the one that killed two police constables, Niroshan Indika Prasanna and Ganesh Dinesh, in Vavunathivu. That is when the mystery of this murder begins to unfold.
The deadly firearm number was T 56–28050884
Examination of its history revealed that it had been given to the Eravur Police during the war. It was also revealed that the Eravur police had issued this firearm bearing the said number to a Muslim Home Guard called ‘Vellathambi Abdul Razak’. Further investigation revealed that he had disappeared with this firearm in 2008.
But Abdul Razak, who arrived ten days later, returned his firearm. Its number was T 56–28050884, the same number of the firearm that was officially given to him.
A case was also filed against Abdul Razak in the Batticaloa Magistrate Court regarding his disappearance with the firearm. The case number was 226/2008, and it was referred to the High Court in 2014. The High Court case number was 2959/2014.
The case against Abdul Razak was dropped and he was freed on 3 April 2017 due to alleged technical glitches (by which many ministers escape from criminal cases these days).
The next scene in the play
The next scene in the play unfolds after the discovery of the Vavunathivu murder weapon found in the Sainmarudu house.
Its number was also the same number of the firearm returned by Abdul Razak, T 56– 28050884. Two firearms never get the same number.
In order to unravel this problem, the detectives of the Special Investigation Division of the Police examined the firearm No. T 56–28050884 handed over by Abdul Razak in the year 2008. They then saw that the original number of the weapon had been erased and the number T 56–28050884 had been re-engraved on it.
Abdul Razak cries and tells the truth
Abdul Razak was summoned to the Special Investigation Unit. He started to cry when asked what happened to the original firearm given to him by the Eravur police. He admitted that he had given the firearm to a Muslim group working with the Army on instructions. He was also given a firearm with a fraudulent number that was handed over to the police.
Lanka-e-News has received further information about this group but due to security reasons this information has to be kept confidential at this time.
Ten days ago, the report of this investigation was handed over to the IGP by the SSP of Special Investigation Division of Police, D. S. Wickramasingha.
The Easter Commission report states that Saharan Hashim’s group was trained in weapons by two Muslims who worked with Army intelligence. The report says that “Jameel”, a mysterious figure in the Easter attack, was also involved in the military intelligence service.
Even Mahinda Rajapaksa has admitted that, during the war, 42 Muslim spies were paid by military intelligence from secret accounts in the Ministry of Defense. According to MP Harin Fernando, members of the military intelligence service had met Saharan Hashim before the Easter attack. He also says that there is an audio tape related to it.
(Adopted from a news report published by LankaeNews.)