The police spokesman said that Rashid Hajjul Akbar was publishing articles in a magazine published by the Jamaat-e-Islami organization to promote Wahhabism and Jihadi ideology in Sri Lanka.
A 60-year-old former leader of the Islamic organization Jamaat-e-Islami has been arrested in Sri Lanka on charges of promoting extremism in the country, police announced on Saturday.
Police spokesperson Drs. Ajit Rohana said that Rashid Hajjul Akbar, who had been leading the Jamaat-e-Islami organization for 24 years until last September 2019, was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) on Friday.
The police spokesman said that he was publishing articles in a magazine published by the Jamaat-e-Islami organization to promote Wahhabism and Jihadi ideology in Sri Lanka.
The arrest came in the form of an investigation panel on 2019 Easter Sunday, which called for the Muslim nation to ban Wahhabism in the island nation to inspire Muslim extremism.
On April 21, 2019, nine suicide bombers from the local Islamic extremist group National Thahid Jamaat (NTJ) carried out a series of explosions through three churches and several luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, killing 270 people including 11 Indians. . And more than 500 were injured on Easter Sunday.
The blasts targeted St. Anthony’s Church in Colombo, St. Sebastian’s Church in the western coastal city of Negombo, and a church in the eastern city of the church during Easter Sunday Mass.
Earlier this week, Public Safety Minister Sarath Veerasekara told Parliament that about 676 people were arrested in the 2019 attack and 66 more have been kept in custody.
The panel’s report also called for a ban on the majority Buddhist extremist organization Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), which reported that it gave a boost to Muslim extremism.
Former panel leader Maithripala Sirisena and top police officials then ignored the previous intelligence warnings and the panel’s search caused a political storm due to failure to take preventive action.
Mr. Sirisena is the president of the ruling coalition and his party SLFP has rejected the findings.
The Catholic Church, under whose pressure Mr. Sirisena appointed the inquiry panel, who found him guilty, wants the proceedings to be determined by the panel.
The panel recommended that the findings be sent to the Attorney General for criminal action. The head of the Catholic Church, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, warned that if they would not get any satisfactory results from local action, they would push for an international investigation. As the report has revealed, it has found the most to blame, stating that the masterminds behind the attack were not brought to light in the investigation.
.
Add Comment