6 years of Easter bombings in Sri Lanka by ISIS terrorists: Then and now, how the island nation has been handling Islamic terrorism

On this day six years ago, in 2019, Sri Lanka experienced devastating serial bombings on Easter Sunday. Coordinated suicide bombings linked to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State (IS) targeted three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo, the nation’s capital. Additionally, two smaller blasts occurred later that day at a housing complex in Dematagoda and in a guest house in Dehiwala.

The terrorist attacks resulted in the deaths of 279 individuals, including 11 Indians, and at least 45 foreign nationals, three police officers and eight suicide bombers, with around 500 others sustaining injuries. The church bombings took place during Easter services in Negombo, Batticaloa, and Colombo while the affected hotels included the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Tropical Inn. The State Intelligence Service (SIS) reported that a second wave of attacks was planned but was thwarted by government raids.

Officials from the Sri Lankan government stated that the suicide bombers involved in the attacks were all Sri Lankan nationals affiliated with the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ), a local terrorist group suspected of having international connections and known for its attacks on Buddhists and Sufis.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch,” former State Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene disclosed. The attack on two mosques in Christchurch by accused gunman Brenton Tarrant claimed the lives of around 50 people and injured many others. The Indian High Commission was a possible target of the bombings, based on Sri Lankan Parliament Committee’s report.

On 23rd April 2019, the Amaq News Agency, which serves as a propaganda platform for the Islamic State, announced that “the perpetrators of the attack targeting the citizens of coalition countries and Christians in Sri Lanka were Islamic State fighters.” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the slain leader of IS lauded the attackers in an 18-minute video covering various subjects. The outfit claimed responsibility and released video of suicide bombers pledging allegiance to the group.

Ten years of peace on the island nation were upended by the assault which once more highlighted the deeper issues in the country’s politics and society. They served as a sobering reminder of the country’s brutal past, which included a 25-year civil war that claimed over 70,000 lives before Sri Lankan forces prevailed over LTTE in 2009.

It is evident that the primary target of the attack was Sri Lanka’s Christian minority which makes up fewer than 10% of the country’s 22 million inhabitants. Notably, Sri Lanka did not participate in the anti-ISIS coalition, however, the majority of those who died in the bombings were citizens of the country.

Major intelligence failure

What stood out most about these attacks was the clear intelligence failure to act on early warnings. The security agencies were alerted to a Islamist group’s intentions to carry out suicide attacks on churches, ten days before the bombings, but no subsequent action was taken. These warnings were reiterated just a day before the attacks with India involved in the intelligence exchange. This reflected a tactical shortcoming, as the country’s institutional framework was found lacking during such a serious crisis.

Several recordings of Zahran Hashim, one of the suicide bombers were obtained by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from the electronic devices of the seven ISIS terrorists who were nabbed in Coimbatore in September of 2018. The agnecy executed raids in multiple locations in connection with a plot by to assassinate leaders of Hindu outfits by ISIS-inspired terrorists.

Hashim was accused of radicalizing these individuals while he was in India. They had planned to murder many Hindu leaders, including Mookambikai Mani, the leader of the Hindu Munnani and Arjun Sampath, the chief of the Hindu Makkal Katchi.

Investigators concluded that he was preparing “something big” in Sri Lanka after the Indian authorities recognized him as the head of the National Thowheed Jamaath based on the footage. On 4th April, Indian authorities warned their Sri Lankan colleagues about potential assaults based on the intelligence provided by the NIA. According to Indian investigators, Hashim traveled to Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Vellore and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu as well as Malappuram in Kerala.

He was accused of being involved in a smuggling operation between Kalpitiya on the northwest coast of Sri Lanka and Ramanathapuram on the eastern coast of India. He was the leader of the National Thowheeth Jamaath which claimed responsibility for the attack in Sri Lanka. He was initially recognized by security personnel in the video that Islamic State shared to take responsibility of the bombings. He was observed leading seven individuals in swearing loyalty to the IS chief.

When it was discovered that the authorities had not properly disseminated the Indian intelligence warning about planned assaults from the beginning of the month, the government acknowledged a “major intelligence lapse.” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe emphasized that neither he nor his cabinet members had received any notification regarding the warning.

It highlighted the power struggle between him and President Maithripala Sirisena who was also the defense minister and oversaw the nation’s intelligence agencies, culminating in a brutal attack on their country. Furthermore, there was a significant strategic failure in tracking the progression of NTJ from a fringe entity to a major threat.

Aftermath of the attack

The Sri Lankan government was driven to implement a series of measures aimed at projecting a sense of order, in the wake of these attacks. The president appointed a 3-member panel to investigate the bombings while also empowering the police and security forces with greater authority to capture and interrogate suspects. Additionally, the government temporarily blocked access to social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram.

A curfew was enforced, the NTJ was banned and numerous arrests were made. Ministers claimed that although security services had been keeping an eye on the NTJ, neither the prime minister nor the cabinet had received an alert. Maithripala Sirisena moved to fire the inspector general of police and the defense secretary.

A four-month state of emergency was proclaimed by the Sri Lankan government, giving the military broad authority to search, detain and arrest anyone in accordance with the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Over 2,000 Muslims were held by the authorities. Arrest warrants were based on the possession of Islamic literature, specific attire or dubious affiliations. Many people were held in custody for years.

Over the next few weeks, communal violence escalated, fueled by calls to boycott businesses, stores, and services linked to a particular community. The administration of President Sirisena enacted a prohibition on the niqab, citing concerns for national security. Although this ban was lifted in August 2019, it was succeeded by other rules, such as dress-code rules for Muslim women teachers, particularly in the Eastern Province. These regulations were later withdrawn due to pushback and the intervention of the nation’s Human Rights Commission.

Four Muslim ministers resigned but they later returned to their positions after inquiries failed to find any evidence of their suspected link with Islamist organization. Nine government lawmakers, including six cabinet ministers, stepped down in early June after a Buddhist politician accused them of having ties to terrorism and requested their dismissal.

On the other hand, two Muslim Provincial Governors resigned in Kandy following protests by thousands, which included monks from the predominantly Buddhist community. A monk even initiated a hunger strike outside Sri Dalada Malingawa, the holiest Buddhist site in Sri Lanka, demanding the removal of three Muslim politicians, citing their involvement in the bombings.

Many prominent Muslims including lawyers and poets were arrested in relation to the bombings. A parliamentary sectoral oversight committee on national security was established to draft recommendations for counterterrorism measures. The committee issued suggestions in 14 areas that Muslims believed restrict their religious freedom.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared his intention to rid the country of what he described as new religious extremist threats when he ran for president in 2019. His efforts were successful, as he received resounding support from Sinhala voters, including a large number of Catholics who had not previously supported him. After taking office, his administration increased monitoring on Muslims for pandemic response or national security purposes. The government outlawed the burial of those who were believed to have died from COVID-19 on 1st April 2020. The policy remained in effect for months.

Sri Lanka’s public security minister, Sarath Weerasekara, declared that the government would shut down more than 1,000 unregistered Islamic schools nationwide and outlaw the burqa, on 13th March 2021. According to him, “the burqa” had a “direct impact on national security” and was a “sign of religious extremism.”  He pointed out, “Nobody can open a school and teach whatever you want to the children. It must be as per the government laid down education policy.” He insisted that it was “bad for the students” if unregulated madrassas only taught the Quran and Arabic.

Human rights organizations and the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief made several declarations in response to the widely reported development. The administration withdrew the remark three days later as Keheliya Rambukwella, the cabinet spokesperson conveyed that a consultative procedure and time are needed to make the decision.

The administration declared that approval from the defense ministry would be required for all imported Islamic books, in 2021. It gazetted a set of regulations under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, a few days later. The subheading displayed, “Deradicalization from holding violent extremist religious ideology.” The rules allowed the authorities to detain people on suspicion and send them to a rehabilitation facility where they could be “deradicalized” for a year without the requirement to adhere to further procedures.

Seventy Muslim women and girls in Trincomalee had their A-Level test results withheld by the Department of Examination in early 2024 because they were wearing white shawls, which were against dress norms. The government eventually labeled their clothing as hijabs and was charged with jeopardizing their ability to pursue further education after examiners allegedly allowed them to take the tests.

Sainthood and a fresh probe

On its fifth anniversary last year, the Catholic church in Sri Lanka made the decision to declare all those slain in the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide attacks saints. The announcement was made by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, at a service.

“A person can be named a saint only after the completion of 5 years since one’s sacrifice. Therefore, we will move towards declaring Easter Sunday victims as saints on April 21 this year. Those who died in churches in April 2019 sacrificed their lives for what they believed in. They came to church because they believed in Christ,” Malcolm Ranjith expressed. 167 victims were recognized as “heroes (or witnesses) of faith” by the Vatican on 21st April 2025.

He made the announcement during a celebration commemorating the sixth anniversary of the suicide attacks. The statement was delivered at a vigil held at Colombo’s Saint Anthony’s Church, which was targeted in the coordinated explosions.

He had been fighting the government for justice for the victims for the past five years. He denounced every probe as a political cover-up and a hoax. He called for an international probe into the assault. However, according to the administration, hundreds of people had been arrested and the legal process is ongoing.

He had been fighting the government for justice for the victims for the past five years. He denounced every probe as a political cover-up and a hoax. He called for an international probe into the assault. However, according to the administration, hundreds of people had been arrested and the legal process is ongoing.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath mentioned, “There have been several commissions of inquiry, but some evidence was suppressed. We want to find out why there were irregularities in the previous investigations, take a fresh look at the incident, expose the culprits, and bring them to justice.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s top espionage agency was returned to police control after almost five years when President Anura Kumara Dissanayake fired Suresh Sallay, the intelligence chief. The latter was connected to the bombers and had met with them before the attack, according to a report by British channel Channel 4 last year. The network was informed by a whistleblower that he had allowed the attack in an attempt to sway the presidential election that year.

A longtime insider in the Rajapaksa inner circle, Hanzeer Azad Maulana, claimed to have arranged a meeting between military intelligence chief Suresh Sallay and NTJ members in 2018. He stated that the latter informed him that in order to restore the Rajapaksa family to power, there needed to be national insecurity. Sallay, however, denied any role in the bombings.

The critical Buddhist-Muslim dynamics

Relations between the Sinhala Buddhist majority, which comprises around 70% of the population, and the Hindu and Christian Tamil minority, consists of approximately 12%, have been turbulent since Sri Lanka’s independence from the British in 1948. Buddhist nationalists have recently engaged in conflict with Muslims after encountering the chaos of Tamil separatism. Following riots in 2014 and ongoing attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses, sectarian conflict has escalated in Sri Lanka in past few years.

An anti-Muslim movement led by the monk Galabod Aththe Gnanasara and started by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) emerged following the end of the civil war in 2009. The BBS is an activist organization run by Buddhist monks that organized on the idea that “social separatism” of ‘extremist Muslims” constituted a threat. The BBS succeeded in abolishing the nation’s halal certification system during this time. Similar to Burmese buddhist monk and leader of 969 Movement, Wirathu, Gnanasara stated that Muslim invaders are destroying Buddhist heritage sites and outlined that his battle is against Islamic radicalization.

Myanmar’s 969 Movement (nationalist movement opposed to Islam’s expansion in the predominantly Buddhist country) and the BBS made a deal in 2014 at a summit in Colombo as part of a Buddhist and international anti-Islamist campaign. Some Buddhists have been taking a coordinated counter-approach to the rise of Islamic extremism in their nations.

Traces of ISIS from Sri Lanka to India

Four Sri Lankans were apprehended by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on 20th May 2024 at Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on suspicion of being ISIS terrorists. According to Indian media, the four men were corresponding with “Abu,” a Pakistani ISIS handler. Three loaded pistols and an ISIS flag were seized by the authorities from them. They sough to attack Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders including Nupur Sharma, Rajah Singh, and Updesh Rana for alleged “atrocities against Muslims.”

Mohammed Rasdin (43), Mohammed Faris (35), Mohammed Nafran (27) and Mohammed Nusrath Gani (33) were formerly part of the National Thowheeth Jamaath. According to the them, they were paid 400,000 Sri Lankan rupees, or around $1,400, to carry out the attacks. All four had criminal histories, according to Sri Lankan authorities. Nafran is the son of Niyas Naufer, also known as Potta Naufer, an infamous underground crime lord who was given the death penalty for the 2004 murder of High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya.

“Abu gave Rs 4 lakh in Sri Lankan currency to the four suspects to carry out terror activities. He had sent them photos of weapons, its location including geo coordinates through proton drive and proton mail and list of targets. Following the information, the ATS officials claimed to have found three pistols from a pink colour parcel and a black flag from a location in Nana Chioda area. The pistols bear star marks but their serial numbers have been deliberately removed so that its origin can’t be traced,” the authorities informed.

The arrests have, predictably, rekindled worries about Islamic radicalism in Sri Lanka and its affect in India. The repercussions of the spillover may lead India to revisit the era of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), which was responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. This incident, executed by a suicide bomber, represented a significant threat to India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as the group’s violent and disruptive actions were viewed as harmful to the nation’s security.

Zahran Hashim, the mastermind behind the Easter attacks, reportedly traveled to India and communicated with Indians on social media. Several self-styled pro-ISIS groups have subsequently been busted by Indian security officials, particularly in the southern region of the nation. India has also evacuated people from Gulf states who have supported ISIS and engaged in other terrorist activities over the years.

ISIS presence in South Asia

The bombings in Sri Lanka, marked a new strategy for ISIS in South Asia, which consists of three components: ISIS operating on the ground in the region through provinces like ISIS-KP (Khorasan Province), regional terrorist outfits inspired by ISIS’s ideology and carrying out attacks in its name and South Asian citizens returning to the region after joining the group in Syria.

It is estimated that 41 Sri Lankan nationals traveled to Syria to join ISIS despite the government’s prior denials to the contrary. The arrest of more than 90 people in relation to the Easter bombings revealed a wide-ranging network of people who shared NTJ and JMI’s (Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim) viewpoints. The story is much the same in India. The first known instances of Indian nationals trying to join ISIS were reported to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2014 and it formed an ISIS research cell in March 2019.

The NIA looked into 112 people in India for intending to join ISIS, with the southern Indian state of Kerala having the most pro-ISIS cases. About 100 Indians traveled to Syria to join ISIS. The primary ISIS-affiliated organization in India is the Indian Mujahideen (IM), whose former commander, Shafi Armar, was its media head in Syria. He was neutralised in Syria in March 2019. In addition, he was the leader of Ansar-ut Tawhid fi Bilad al-Hind, an ISIS-affiliated organization iin India.

Armar previously used social media to recruit 17 members for Junood-ul-Khilafa-Fil-Hind, an outfit that aimed to build an ISIS-aligned caliphate in India. The Indian government has also been concerned about radicalization among the more than eight million Indians who currently live in the Gulf.

ISIS-KP province which encompasses Afghanistan and Pakistan has been the outfit’s most well-established regional presence on the ground. The organization was the first ISIS offshoot outside of the Middle East. It was founded in October 2014. ISIS built its headquarters in eastern Afghanistan after former Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistani commanders swore loyalty to the group. Governments in South Asia now have to deal with ISIS and the threat of violence inspired by the group is growing throughout the region.

The terror organization announced the creation of a new subcontinental Indian province, after the death of its last known member in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and the Maldives are among the nine nations that are included in this province. It then declared a province of Pakistan after a few days.

India, located next to nations that are heavily radicalized namely Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan faces a significant threat from ISIS, which is establishing a presence in these countries as well as in Sri Lanka and India itself. This situation endangers the sovereignty, integrity and security of the entire region, especially India.

The absence of a major terrorist attack by ISIS in the country can be credited to the proactive measures taken by the Indian security appratus because the group has openly declared its animosity towards the Hindu-majority nation on numerous occasions. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the primary regional forum, is still inactive because of India’s concerns about cross-border terrorism by organizations based in Pakistan.

It is essential for the Indian government to enhance cooperation between domestic security and intelligence agencies, as well as with allied nations, to effectively combat the menace of ISIS terrorism, given the insufficient regional counter-terrorism collaboration.

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