ISIS

There is a tragic disconnect between what Sri Lanka’s leaders say to the public and the patent disbelief with which these words are received. This will eventually have dangerous repercussions beyond the electoral defeat of those men, impacting on the nation as a whole as it is pushed in a perilous direction with raw bitterness […]

Image: The burial of a victim of the Easter Sunday bomb blasts at Sellakanda Catholic Cemetery in Negombo, Sri Lanka, last month.CreditCreditAdam Dean for The New York Times. By Jeffrey Gettleman, Dharisha Bastians and Hannah Beech. (May 3, 2019)COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The suicide bombs were packed with ball bearings, iron nails and the explosive TATP, […]

Image: Another scare: Sri Lankan security personnel inspecting the debris of a car that exploded on Monday near the St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo.   | Photo Credit: AFP. Meera Srinivasan. The Colombo mission, among the potential targets, took precautions after the early-April warning. India had issued an alert to Sri Lanka in early April on […]

Image: Sharfaz Muhsin of Kandy Sri Lanka, an alleged fighter in ISIS, who was killed in an air raid in Syria on July 12 ,2015; courtesy NIE. Colombo, Nov 18 (NIA) – The Sri Lankan Minister of Justice, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, said in parliament here on Friday, that there is information that 32 Sri Lankans, belonging […]

Commentary by Rohan Gunaratna. Sri Lanka today is one of the safest countries in the world. The country has returned to peace and prosperity, after a long and bloody war ended in May 2009. Yet this peace is fragile. Efforts from abroad to influence a revival of the old separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil […]

A state intelligence arm has warned the Government over what it fears is the radicalisation of Muslim groups turning out to be supporters of the ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The concerns are reflected in a top secret report sent to President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The report […]

( An injured person is evacuated outside the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s office, in Paris) Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) member and Government Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva today hit out at France following a deadly terrorist attack which claimed the lives of some 153 people. Speaking at a public event in Ella, the […]

All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) together with other Muslim organisations yesterday strongly condemned those backing the ISIS or any other extremist organisation. “We do not condone any person or organisation that engages in extremism in any form,” ACJU President Mufthi M. I. M. Rizwie said. He said an awareness campaign would be launched today and […]