Thawheed Jamaat, group active in Tamil Nadu, prime suspect behind Sri Lanka blasts

NEW DELHI: The eight serial blasts that shook Sri Lanka on Easter and reverberated around the world have drawn attention to an arc of radicalisation stretching from the Maldives to Bangladesh where Islamic State-inspired modules have been regularly linked to terror incidents.
Though counter-intelligence experts are cautious in the absence of an acknowledgement, topping the shortlist of suspects is Thawheed Jamaat, a hardline group with a significant presence in Tamil Nadu too.
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Though suicide bombing was virtually invented by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam decades ago, Sunday's attacks bear the hallmark of Islamist groups. The Wahhabi-aligned Sri Lanka Thawheed Jamaat (SLTJ) has found traction in the country's eastern province and has been pushing Sharia law with burqas for women and building mosques to disseminate radical messages.


The attacks, in their operationalisation, seem similar to the Holey Artisan Bakery suicide attack in Dhaka in 2016, which was carried out by local boys but trained by Islamic State. The spectacular scale bears the IS signature and is in keeping with the desire of jihadi groups from Al Qaida to IS, and including variants like Lashkar and Jaish, to stage attacks that serve to intimidate enemies and attract recruits. Maldives, with the dubious distinction of having one of the highest number of IS fighters, has been a source of worry. Apart from terrorist acts, the deeper radicalisation due to IS messaging is a serious challenge to social stability.


Whether the Thawheed has made the leap into suicide bombings is not clear and will await investigation even though the scale of the attacks might indicate that jihadi terrorism has made a major landfall in Sri Lanka. SLTJ’s activities have triggered a Buddhist backlash which has resulted in some tension between Buddhists and Muslims, including recent attacks against Buddha statues in the country.
Since the attack on Sunday was specifically directed against Christians on a holy day, the likelihood of the event being part of a bigger Islamist jihad is not ruled out.
The initial assessment is that the attack was likely to have been carried out by radicalised Lankan Muslims. But counter-terrorism specialists say it would be difficult for a local group to carry out coordinated attacks of the magnitude seen yesterday without the help of an outside terror force.