-By Investigative Reporter
(Lanka-e-News -13.April.2025, 10.00 PM) As Sri Lanka prepares to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the Easter Sunday bombings, an ominous cloud looms over the official narrative. The 2019 suicide attacks that claimed over 250 lives were instantly blamed on a little-known Islamic extremist group, with alleged ties to ISIS. However, a new wave of intelligence leaks, whistleblower testimonies, and circumstantial financial trails suggest that the attack may have been far more orchestrated—possibly by powerful elements within the Sri Lankan state itself.
The most explosive claim? That Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who would ride a wave of post-attack nationalism to become President in November 2019, may have directly or indirectly funded the attackers through a close associate. If proven true, this would not only rewrite history but also place one of the most powerful political families in Sri Lanka under criminal scrutiny.
At the heart of this unfolding scandal is an intelligence report leaked to select journalists and lawmakers in Colombo. The report names a prominent figure in the plantation sector—allegedly a close friend of Gotabaya Rajapaksa—as the conduit for the funding. This businessman, who also served as a director of a luxury hotel in Colombo and reportedly benefited from the now-infamous sugar importation scam, is alleged to have funneled over LKR 65 million to individuals linked with the Easter Sunday attackers.
The funds, according to the report, were used to purchase explosives, provide logistical support, and finance the travel and lodging of the perpetrators. The money trail, currently under investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and a special unit of the NPP government, links shell companies and offshore accounts to a group of facilitators with known links to military intelligence.
Multiple insiders, including two mid-ranking intelligence officers who have since sought asylum abroad, claim that a covert wing of Sri Lanka's Military Intelligence Unit, loyal to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, provided logistical support to the attackers. This included:
Transporting Zahran Hashim and his accomplices from the Eastern Province to Colombo in unmarked government vehicles;
Providing temporary accommodation in safehouses known to be previously used by military informants;
Supplying encrypted communication equipment to allow the attackers to avoid detection.
These chilling details not only contradict the original findings of the Presidential Commission appointed by then-President Maithripala Sirisena but also cast doubt on whether the government of the day truly lost control—or whether it merely lost plausible deniability.
The first academic to publicly and aggressively link the Easter Sunday attacks to the Islamic State was Professor Rohan Gunaratna, a controversial counter-terrorism expert with longstanding ties to the Sri Lankan military establishment.
Gunaratna’s early media blitz, both locally and internationally, asserted that “ISIS-inspired radical Islamists” were behind the attack. His narrative became the bedrock of government explanations, effectively insulating state actors from deeper inquiry.
But critics now claim that Gunaratna's interventions were not objective academic analyses, but rather part of a strategically constructed narrative meant to direct public anger away from internal actors and to justify militarization and the return of a “strongman” to leadership. Notably, Gunaratna was reportedly in close contact with Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s team throughout the 2019 election campaign.
One of the more disturbing elements of this emerging picture is Zahran Hashim’s documented travel to Malaysia, months before the Easter attack. While initial reporting treated this as a radicalization pilgrimage, new evidence points toward a high-level diplomatic meeting.
According to whistleblower testimony and unofficial consular logs, Zahran met with then Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Malaysia, MJM Musamil, a political appointee with alleged ties to the Rajapaksa camp. The contents of this meeting remain unknown, but it is now the focus of renewed investigation.
Why would a wanted extremist meet with a Sri Lankan diplomat? And why has Musamil not been questioned in any of the official probes so far?
Legal experts argue that the current NPP government must now summon Musamil for a full deposition, as he may hold key information about transnational coordination and back-channel facilitation that enabled the attackers to operate with impunity.
Perhaps the most important question remains: Who benefited from the Easter Sunday attacks?
The answer is unambiguous. Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
At the time of the bombings, the country was reeling from the political instability of the failed 2018 coup and growing public disillusionment with both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. Within hours of the Easter attacks, the Rajapaksa political machine sprung into action, decrying “Islamic terror” and demanding a return to militarized rule.
The fear and outrage generated by the attacks all but assured Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s electoral victory seven months later. His campaign emphasized national security, discipline, and intelligence reform—all the while subtly blaming the existing government for negligence and complicity.
The businessman named in the intelligence leak—referred to here as Mahzoom—was reportedly among the largest beneficiaries of the sugar importation scam, which cost Sri Lanka billions in lost tax revenue. During Gotabaya’s tenure as President, Mahzoom’s companies allegedly imported large quantities of sugar at low tariffs, profiting massively while selling at market prices.
Investigators believe a portion of these illicit profits were diverted to fund the attackers. The transactions were masked as “business development costs” in balance sheets and routed through shell companies with offices in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.
Despite multiple red flags raised by the Central Bank’s Compliance Department, no action was taken during Gotabaya’s presidency to probe these transactions.
Major General Suresh Saleh, the current head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and a known Rajapaksa loyalist, is also named in the leaked dossier. He allegedly maintained communications with three individuals connected to the Easter attackers, including a middleman who arranged safe passage for Zahran into Colombo.
Although Saleh has denied all allegations and insists on his innocence, critics point out that his swift rise through the ranks, despite credible allegations of human rights abuses during the final stages of the civil war, reflect deeper institutional rot within Sri Lanka’s security apparatus.
With the National People's Power (NPP) government now in power, the responsibility to act decisively falls on their shoulders. In a recent address, NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake acknowledged that “certain truths have yet to be uncovered” about the Easter attacks.
Activists and victims’ families are demanding that the government:
Summon and interrogate MJM Musamil over Zahran’s Malaysia visit.
Arrest and question Mahzoom, the alleged financier and sugar scam profiteer.
Declassify the leaked intelligence reports and make them available to Parliament.
Investigate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Suresh Saleh, and other implicated officials for aiding and abetting terrorism.
The victims’ families, still searching for answers after six long years, deserve nothing less than the full truth.
Sri Lanka has long suffered the curse of impunity. From the burning of the Jaffna Library to the disappearances during the civil war, and now, perhaps, to the Easter Sunday attack itself, powerful men have too often walked free while the people suffer in silence.
But this time, silence is no longer an option.
If the allegations contained in this report—and the underlying intelligence—are validated through legal scrutiny, Sri Lanka may be witnessing the greatest political crime of its post-independence history: the deliberate orchestration of mass murder to seize state power.
As the country lights candles in memory of the victims this Easter, let us also ignite the flame of justice. Truth has no expiry date. And those who kill for power must one day answer for it.
-By Investigative Reporter
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by (2025-04-13 16:30:59)
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