Sunanda Deshapriya.
The first to write that the Deep State is behind the Easter Sunday Attack was Rajan Hoole, a well-known writer and author.
In his book ‘When the Deep State gets out of its Depth’, he wrote:
“Although the Deep State under J.R. Jayewardene largely remained hidden from public view after July 1983, it took on a new menacing character during the Rajapaksa presidency, when his brother Gotabaya was the Defense Secretary. It did so with the support of openly partisan Chief Justices Sarath Silva and Mohan Peiris. Its actions included the 2006 killings of the five students and the 17 ACF aid workers in Trincomalee, attacks on journalists, the 2009 assassination of Lasantha Wickremesinghe and the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda. The Sinhalese could no longer ignore it. It also helped to bring about the abrupt end of the Rajapaksa presidency in January 2015. The result was the installation of someone who had no clear position on the deep state and was ultimately intimidated by it.”
Some of these crimes that Rajan Hoole notes are related to the Tripoli mIlitry camp. The crimes committed by the military personnel residing in the Tripoli camp and their connection to the Easter attacks have been detailed by Parliamentarian Shanakkian Rasamanikkam. The military intelligence officers who tracked down Jameel, a suicide bomber in the Easter attacks, used a mobile phone connected to the Tripoli camp. It is also relevant to the Lasantha assassination.
I have also discussed the subject in my book “Easter Sunday Attacks: The Shadow of the Deep State and the Unsolved Mysteries” that the Easter attacks took place under the cover of an extension of the deep state that was rooted in this country.
The Deep State is not just an underground structure in a political sense. There is no single definition for it in political literature. A Deep State is a political, military and ideological alliance that operates outside the law for its own purposes. A networked group in a society where militarization, extreme Nationalism and religiosity have intertwined to maintain the power of the majority over the minority. Chief Justices and even Presidents can take steps to manipulate the Deep State for illegitimate political agendas, as Rajan Hoole has also pointed out. Sanjay Rajaratnam, the Attorney General of presidents Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe, is another prominent example.
One could argue that such individuals are not Deep State but part of the state. True. They are both states and Deep State at the same time. Deep State operate outside the rule of law. Deep State is not a single structure. In Sri Lanka context it is an ideological and operational structure with its own political agenda, networked at various levels.
Few weeks ago Lasantha Ruhuna’s investigative article in ‘Anidda’ newspaper detailed the new evidence that the Crime Investigation Department has uncovered regarding the Easter Sunday attacks. It clearly points towards to the existence pf a Deep State.
The article clearly shows that there was a political conspiracy behind the Easte Sunday attacks. This conspiracy is orchestrated by the Deep State.
That article provides evidence that the Directorate of Military Intelligence had taken steps to cover up the real killers by providing false information about the attack on the Vavanathivu checkpoint on November 30, 2018 which killed two police officers and seized weapons. I also raised the same suspicion in my book published on the Easter Sunday attacks.
According to what we now know, within a week of the attack, an informant, a paramilitary Informer named Mohamed Khalil Mohamed Masfi alias Nazir, had informed the Directorate of Military Intelligence in writing that the attack was carried out by the Zahran group that carried out the Easter Sunday attacks.
This Khalil was not an average informer. He was a top civilian spy who had infiltrated the Saharan group.
A statement by Brigadier Chula Kodithuwakku, the head of the Army Intelligence Department, states that a secret device had been secretly installed on Khalil’s phone. In addition, very small short-circuit television cameras had been installed in the house where he lived.
It turns out that his father, who we know only as Khalil, was also an Army informant. He was detained in the Batticaloa prison with Pillayan in connection with the murder of Joseph Pararajasingham.
According to Hanzir Azad Maulana, who was Pillayan’s secretary, it was in this prison that Pillayan and the Zahran group established ties. This is because Zahran’s brother Sheini and a group of others were also held in the same prison for attacking other Muslim faiths in Kathtankudy.
It has now been alleged that the information about the Zahran group, which was given in writing by Mohamed Khalil Mohamed Masfi, was suppressed by Major Kohilamulla Arachchige Chamara Prasad Kamalawarna, the group leader Intelligence Officer Captain Polwatte’s secretary Sumith Nishantha Dissanayake and Colonel Kelum Siripathi Maddumage. A travel ban has been imposed on all of them.
They were part the Directorate of Military Intelligence unit in Batticaloa.
According to those familiar with the intelligence services, officers at that level do not have the authority to take a decision to conceal such important intelligence information. The order to conceal it must have come from above.
It is essential to find out who gave such an order suppressed the information that could have led to stop the Easter Sunday Attacks. This investigation could lead to find masterminds behind the Easter attacks.
And that’s not all.
It is also essential to find out who was behind the arrest of Ajanthan, a former Tamil militant, as a cover-up of the murder. It is still not clear on whose orders placed Ajanth’s a coat, a school bag and other equipment stolen from his house under a culvert with to implicate him in the murder. This is a clear conspiracy.
State Intelligence Service Constable Yasin Bawa Jegil Pass, who claims to have first seen the coat, has not yet come forward. He has told the CID that he received the information anonymously on his mobile phone. His statement does not match the testimony of the officer above him.
The fact that the information provided by these informants is contradictory points towards a plan of hiding the truth. On the other hand their superior officer i.e. the head of the State Intelligence Service, DIG Nilantha Jayawardena, has also destroyed this information as well as deleted the data on his mobile phone. Whose interest has the entire information regarding the Easter Sunday attacks been compromised to protect whom?
From what source do these officials and informants get the strength to suppress the truth even under a new government?
The answer lies in the power of the Deep State networks. It is still alive and kicking.
I.P. Bandara, who was infiltrated into the Zahran group under the name of Sonic Sonic, also refrained from providing information to the Crime Investigation Department. He has not been arrested. Khalil has not been arrested yet. DIG Nilantha Jayawardena has not been questioned. Brigadier Chula Kodithuwakku has not been questioned.
In April 2019, the current Deputy Defense Minister, Major General Aruna Jayasekara, was the head of the military in the Eastern Province, which included Saindamarudu, where relatives of the Easter Sunday attackers committed mass suicide.
Instead of being arrested, Zahran’s brother Sheini, who survived the collective suicide and was in front of the house, was killed instead of arresting him by the Army commandos who surrounded the house. Who ordered the killing of Sheini may also be relevant to the Deep State.
The disappearance of Sarah Jasmine, the wife of the Katuwapitiya suicide bomber who also survived the mass suicide, is another such mystery.
There is now a suspicion that the roots of the Deep State conspiracy behind the Easter Sunday attack may have been involved in the current National People’s Power government.
The mastermind network will not be found without dismantling the Deep State network and revealing the truth of the conspiracy.