A day after police arrested people in a district in <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/sri-lankan-authorities-reimpose-ban-on-four-towns-following-communal-violence-218346">Sri Lanka due to riots</a>, authorities imposed a nationwide curfew on Monday night.

Sri Lanka has been on edge since the April 21st Easter bombings in churches. Last week the blast scarred St. Anthony's Church reopened even as restoration work continued.

"The curfew has been imposed from 9pm, tonight to 4am tomorrow," a police spokesperson said. 
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; 
Army chief Mahesh Senanayake said the troops have been instructed to deal very strictly with those who defy the curfew. The army will shoot on sight if anyone defy the order, he added.

The authorities allowed Sunday mass to go ahead after postponing it several times fearing renewed attacks. However, there were no services at St Sebastian's Church in Negambo, where at least 102 people died.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/police-impose-curfew-on-sri-lanka-town-after-mosques-attacked-218239/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Police said a six-hour nationwide night curfew had been imposed after riots spread to several areas in northern Sri Lanka.

More than 250 people were killed and nearly 500 wounded as terrorists targeted churches and hotels across the emerald island during Easter celebration in Sri Lanka last months.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had said last week that investigators had dismantled a major part of the network linked to the bombings, but warned the chance of further attacks could not be ruled out.

In the latest incident on Sunday, miscreants targeted mosques and stores in Sri Lanka's west coast in Chilaw after a Facebook post created a controversy leading to stone-throwing by a group of men. Police immediately moved in and imposed a curfew.

Later curfew was reimposed in four other towns in northwestern region in Kuliyapitiya, Hettipola, Bingiriya and Dummalasuriya. The Lankan authorities also temporarily blocked social media networks and instant messaging apps in order to maintain peace.

The curfew was later extended across the island, police said in a statement.

PM&nbsp;Wickremesinghe in an address to the nation said the military has been asked to quell the anti-Muslim riot and urged public cooperation to the security forces to bring the situation under control.

"The security forces have been given full powers to deal with those who violate the state of emergency and the islandwide curfew," he said.

He also appealed for calm urged the public not to be swayed by false information.

"I appeal to all citizens to remain calm and not be swayed by false information. Security forces are working tirelessly to apprehend terrorists and ensure the security of the country, but each time there is civil unrest, we increase their burden and hamper ongoing investigations," he said.

A day after police arrested people in a district in Sri Lanka due to riots, authorities imposed a nationwide curfew on Monday night. Sri Lanka has been on edge since the April 21st Easter bombings in churches.

A day after police arrested people in a district in Sri Lanka due to riots, authorities imposed a nationwide curfew on Monday night. Sri Lanka has been on edge since the April 21st Easter bombings in churches. Last week the blast scarred St. Anthony's Church reopened even as restoration work continued. "The curfew has been imposed from 9pm, tonight to 4am tomorrow," a police spokesperson said. Army chief Mahesh Senanayake said the troops have been instructed to deal very strictly with those who defy the curfew. The army will shoot on sight if anyone defy the order, he added. The authorities allowed Sunday mass to go ahead after postponing it several times fearing renewed attacks. However, there were no services at St Sebastian's Church in Negambo, where at least 102 people died. Police said a six-hour nationwide night curfew had been imposed after riots spread to several areas in northern Sri Lanka. More than 250 people were killed and nearly 500 wounded as terrorists targeted churches and hotels across the emerald island during Easter celebration in Sri Lanka last months. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had said last week that investigators had dismantled a major part of the network linked to the bombings, but warned the chance of further attacks could not be ruled out. In the latest incident on Sunday, miscreants targeted mosques and stores in Sri Lanka's west coast in Chilaw after a Facebook post created a controversy leading to stone-throwing by a group of men. Police immediately moved in and imposed a curfew. Later curfew was reimposed in four other towns in northwestern region in Kuliyapitiya, Hettipola, Bingiriya and Dummalasuriya. The Lankan authorities also temporarily blocked social media networks and instant messaging apps in order to maintain peace. The curfew was later extended across the island, police said in a statement. PM Wickremesinghe in an address to the nation said the military has been asked to quell the anti-Muslim riot and urged public cooperation to the security forces to bring the situation under control. "The security forces have been given full powers to deal with those who violate the state of emergency and the islandwide curfew," he said. He also appealed for calm urged the public not to be swayed by false information. "I appeal to all citizens to remain calm and not be swayed by false information. Security forces are working tirelessly to apprehend terrorists and ensure the security of the country, but each time there is civil unrest, we increase their burden and hamper ongoing investigations," he said.

Sri Lanka imposes nationwide curfew after riots

The Catholic church in Sri Lanka has held the first regular Sunday mass since the Easter suicide bombings of churches and hotels killed more than 250 people on April 21.

Sri Lanka's Catholics hold first Sunday mass since Easter attacks

NK&nbsp;Masliya says she has been visiting a neighbourhood clinic in the northwestern&nbsp;Sri&nbsp;Lankan village of Rathmalyaya for over five years, always dressed in a black abaya - a cloak-like over-garment worn by some Muslim women.

But when Masliya went to the clinic nearly three weeks after <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/sri-lanka-says-jihadi-threat-persists-despite-arrests-216736">Islamic militants killed over 250 people</a> in churches and hotels across the country, she said things had changed.

The 36-year-old said she was in a queue with her five-year-old daughter when a nurse told her to remove her abaya, saying: "What if you blow us up with your bomb?"

Muslim groups say they have received dozens of complaints from across&nbsp;Sri&nbsp;Lanka&nbsp;about people from the community being harassed at workplaces, including government offices, hospitals and in public transport since the Easter Sunday attacks.

The government has blamed the attacks on two little-known radical Islamic groups. Islamic State has claimed responsibility.

In the city of Negombo, where over 100 people were <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/sri-lanka-catholic-schools-to-reopen-after-easter-day-attacks-217276">killed at the St&nbsp;Sebastian's Church during Easter prayers</a>, many Pakistani refugees said they fled after threats of revenge from locals.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-sri-lanka-terror-attacks-200-islamic-clerics-deported-216839/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Now, anger against&nbsp;Muslims&nbsp;seems to be spreading. On Sunday, a violent clash erupted between local&nbsp;Muslims&nbsp;and Christians after a traffic dispute.

"The suspicion towards them (Muslims) can grow and there can be localised attacks," said Jehan Perera of the non-partisan advocacy group, the National Peace Council. "That would be the danger."

A ban on facial veils and house-to-house searches by security forces in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods across the country have added to the distrust.

The government says it is aware of tensions between communities and is closely monitoring the situation.

"The government is consciously in dialogue with all the religious leaders and the community leaders," Nalaka Kaluwewa,&nbsp;Sri&nbsp;Lanka's director general of information, told Reuters, adding that security has been increased across the country to avoid any communal tensions.

BUDDHIST HARDLINERS

Muslims&nbsp;make up nearly 10 per cent of&nbsp;Sri&nbsp;Lanka's population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist. The Indian Ocean island was torn for decades by a civil war between separatists from the mostly Hindu Tamil minority and the Sinhala Buddhist-dominated government.

The government stamped out the rebellion about 10 years ago.

In recent years, Buddhist hardliners, led by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or "Buddhist Power Force", have stoked hostility against&nbsp;Muslims, saying influences from the Middle East had made&nbsp;Sri&nbsp;Lanka's&nbsp;Muslims&nbsp;more conservative and isolated.

Last year, scores of Muslim mosques, homes and businesses were destroyed as Buddhist mobs ran amok for three days in Kandy, the central highlands district previously known for its diversity and tolerance.

The violence in Kandy was triggered by an attack on a Buddhist truck driver by four Muslim men after a traffic dispute. The driver later died from the injuries.

BBS' chief executive Dilantha Vithanage said as successive&nbsp;Sri&nbsp;Lankan governments had failed to address what he called a rise in Islamic extremism,&nbsp;Sri&nbsp;Lankans might be forced to do it on their own.

"This is a bigger danger than Tamil separatism," Vithanage told Reuters.

Sri&nbsp;Lanka's junior defence minister,&nbsp;Ruwan Wijewardene,&nbsp;told Reuters the government was taking measures to curb radicalisation but conceded that communal tensions were a big concern.

BOYCOTTING BUSINESSES

In Batticaloa, an eastern city home mainly to Christians and Hindus and where a bomber from a neighbouring town attacked an evangelical church on Easter, a Tamil group has called for a boycott of Muslim-run businesses.

The alleged ringleader of the Easter attacks, preacher Zahran Hashim, and the bomber who targeted Zion Church in Batticaloa were natives of neighbouring Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated town.

"If you have any dignity, stop buying from Muslim shops," read a red-inked leaflet distributed in Batticaloa and produced by a group called 'Tamil Youth, Eastern Province'.

Two members of the group, who both said had lost relatives in the blast, told Reuters that resentment had been building for years against the people of Kattankudy.&nbsp;

"They have always been hostile towards us. They do not eat from our places. If they are going to grow by insulating themselves, we might as well too," one of them said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The business has plummeted at the around 250 Muslim-owned stores in Batticaloa and some will be forced to shut unless sales pick up, said Mohamed Kaleel, the vice-president of the Batticaloa Traders Association.&nbsp;

PRIOR WARNINGS

Among many&nbsp;Muslims, resentment is also building because they believe the community is being unfairly targeted, even though the government was warned repeatedly about possible attacks.

The government has said it had received prior warnings about impending attacks on churches but these were not shared across agencies and admitted that was a lapse.

Muslim community leaders have also said they had repeatedly warned the authorities about Zahran, the alleged mastermind, for years.

"The government knew about the bombings and yet they didn't take any action. But once it happened, they are targeting us, innocent people. This is not fair," said Milhan, a resident in the northwestern town of Puttalam.

Abdullah, a Muslim preacher in Puttalam who declined to give his full name, said the discrimination will alienate&nbsp;Muslims&nbsp;and make them more vulnerable.

"By doing this, extremism will only increase, it won't go away. This is what happened with the Tamils," he said.

NK Masliya says she has been visiting a neighbourhood clinic in the northwestern Sri Lankan village of Rathmalyaya for over five years, always dressed in a black abaya - a cloak-like over-garment worn by some Muslim women.

NK Masliya says she has been visiting a neighbourhood clinic in the northwestern Sri Lankan village of Rathmalyaya for over five years, always dressed in a black abaya - a cloak-like over-garment worn by some Muslim women. But when Masliya went to the clinic nearly three weeks after Islamic militants killed over 250 people in churches and hotels across the country, she said things had changed. The 36-year-old said she was in a queue with her five-year-old daughter when a nurse told her to remove her abaya, saying: "What if you blow us up with your bomb?" Muslim groups say they have received dozens of complaints from across Sri Lanka about people from the community being harassed at workplaces, including government offices, hospitals and in public transport since the Easter Sunday attacks. The government has blamed the attacks on two little-known radical Islamic groups. Islamic State has claimed responsibility. In the city of Negombo, where over 100 people were killed at the St Sebastian's Church during Easter prayers, many Pakistani refugees said they fled after threats of revenge from locals. Now, anger against Muslims seems to be spreading. On Sunday, a violent clash erupted between local Muslims and Christians after a traffic dispute. "The suspicion towards them (Muslims) can grow and there can be localised attacks," said Jehan Perera of the non-partisan advocacy group, the National Peace Council. "That would be the danger." A ban on facial veils and house-to-house searches by security forces in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods across the country have added to the distrust. The government says it is aware of tensions between communities and is closely monitoring the situation. "The government is consciously in dialogue with all the religious leaders and the community leaders," Nalaka Kaluwewa, Sri Lanka's director general of information, told Reuters, adding that security has been increased across the country to avoid any communal tensions. BUDDHIST HARDLINERS Muslims make up nearly 10 per cent of Sri Lanka's population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist. The Indian Ocean island was torn for decades by a civil war between separatists from the mostly Hindu Tamil minority and the Sinhala Buddhist-dominated government. The government stamped out the rebellion about 10 years ago. In recent years, Buddhist hardliners, led by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or "Buddhist Power Force", have stoked hostility against Muslims, saying influences from the Middle East had made Sri Lanka's Muslims more conservative and isolated. Last year, scores of Muslim mosques, homes and businesses were destroyed as Buddhist mobs ran amok for three days in Kandy, the central highlands district previously known for its diversity and tolerance. The violence in Kandy was triggered by an attack on a Buddhist truck driver by four Muslim men after a traffic dispute. The driver later died from the injuries. BBS' chief executive Dilantha Vithanage said as successive Sri Lankan governments had failed to address what he called a rise in Islamic extremism, Sri Lankans might be forced to do it on their own. "This is a bigger danger than Tamil separatism," Vithanage told Reuters. Sri Lanka's junior defence minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, told Reuters the government was taking measures to curb radicalisation but conceded that communal tensions were a big concern. BOYCOTTING BUSINESSES In Batticaloa, an eastern city home mainly to Christians and Hindus and where a bomber from a neighbouring town attacked an evangelical church on Easter, a Tamil group has called for a boycott of Muslim-run businesses. The alleged ringleader of the Easter attacks, preacher Zahran Hashim, and the bomber who targeted Zion Church in Batticaloa were natives of neighbouring Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated town. "If you have any dignity, stop buying from Muslim shops," read a red-inked leaflet distributed in Batticaloa and produced by a group called 'Tamil Youth, Eastern Province'. Two members of the group, who both said had lost relatives in the blast, told Reuters that resentment had been building for years against the people of Kattankudy. "They have always been hostile towards us. They do not eat from our places. If they are going to grow by insulating themselves, we might as well too," one of them said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The business has plummeted at the around 250 Muslim-owned stores in Batticaloa and some will be forced to shut unless sales pick up, said Mohamed Kaleel, the vice-president of the Batticaloa Traders Association. PRIOR WARNINGS Among many Muslims, resentment is also building because they believe the community is being unfairly targeted, even though the government was warned repeatedly about possible attacks. The government has said it had received prior warnings about impending attacks on churches but these were not shared across agencies and admitted that was a lapse. Muslim community leaders have also said they had repeatedly warned the authorities about Zahran, the alleged mastermind, for years. "The government knew about the bombings and yet they didn't take any action. But once it happened, they are targeting us, innocent people. This is not fair," said Milhan, a resident in the northwestern town of Puttalam. Abdullah, a Muslim preacher in Puttalam who declined to give his full name, said the discrimination will alienate Muslims and make them more vulnerable. "By doing this, extremism will only increase, it won't go away. This is what happened with the Tamils," he said.

Muslims afraid, resentful as ethnic divide deepens in Sri Lanka

How did a small, fringe Wahhabi splinter group, led by a fiery speaker with a sixth-grade education, known mainly for defacing Buddhist symbols, carry out a coordinated and sophisticated terrorist attack on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka?

The answer is, it didn’t, not without external support, both direct and indirect.

The Sri Lanka attack reinforces the notion that the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack, is more a brand around which forces with overlapping goals coalesce to exploit local or regional opportunities than an entity.

The events in Sri Lanka were soon followed by the propaganda video reappearance of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who, acknowledging defeat in Syria and specifically citing the Sri Lankan attack, exhorted his followers to expand the fight.

Defeat in Syria has triggered a diaspora of Islamic State fighters either to their native lands or to targets of opportunity such as the thriving extremist networks in South Asia.

The instigators of that extremism and operating continuously in the background are the global promoters of austere and often intolerant forms of Islam such as Wahhabism-Salafism, financed either by wealthy individuals or nation-states that offer forums for radicalisation and sources for potential jihadi recruits.

The main group behind the Sri Lankan bombings, the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), is an ideological offspring of the rapidly growing, Saudi-funded Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ), which has a headquarters in Chennai, India. The TNTJ, a Wahhabi-based organisation, helped establish the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath, from which the NTJ emerged as a splinter.

It is a now well-known fact that some Islamic clerics and preachers play a significant role in the radicalisation of young Muslims and their recruitment for terrorist attacks.

As the late Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew said about preventing terrorist attacks:&nbsp;

“You must use force. But force will only deal with the tip of the problem. In killing the terrorists, you will only kill the worker bees. The queen bees are the preachers, who teach a deviant form of Islam in schools and Islamic centers, who capture and twist the minds of the young.”

Today, drug trafficking not only provides funding for terrorism, but there is a growing use of the organisational and logistical capabilities of criminal cartels to support terrorist operations, some of which contribute to the geopolitical ambitions of nation states.&nbsp;

In the South Columbo Muslim area of Dehiwala, a drug trafficker named Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, who was designated by the US Department of Treasury as a terrorist supporter in 2003, reportedly set up a distribution hub. In 2018, authorities seized 736 kilograms of Dawood’s heroin.

According to one article, Dawood’s D-Company cartel obtains opium from Afghanistan, where production is overseen by the Taliban. &nbsp;From there, logistics and transportation are arranged by Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency (ISI), which provides protection for Dawood in his Karachi base and stipulates the distribution of a portion of the profits to various jihadist and militant groups.

There is much concern about the growth of the Islamic State in Afghanistan. There are reports that Islamic State jihadis, who fought in Syria and Iraq, are migrating to Afghanistan, joining disaffected Taliban fighters seeking greater Islamic purity.

Although Afghanistan offers a potential power vacuum, which the Islamic State can fill, a far more fertile ground for expansion is in Pakistan.

It is a little-known fact that the Islamic State now operating in Afghanistan, originated in Pakistan.

Members of the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan or TTP began migrating to Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province as “refugees” in 2010 after Pakistani military operations against the TTP in Orakzai and Khyber Agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

It was those “refugees” who provided a foundation for the Islamic State. That base support was augmented by thousands of Pakistanis who fought for the Islamic State in Syria and returned starting in 2013.

In January 2015, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) was declared with former TTP commander Hafiz Saeed Khan of Orakzai as the leader, whose twelve-member Shura had nine Pakistanis.

It is the growing level of extremism and intolerance in Pakistan that should be of concern, which has been a threat to Afghanistan and will be the main contributor to instability in South Asia.

It is the direct result of official Pakistani policy and the activities of Pakistan’s ISI.

The “Islamisation” programme initiated by Pakistani President Muhammad Zia ul Haq in the late 1970s, which involved the proliferation of Islamic schools, “madrasas” and the promotion of Islamic law “Sharia,” was specifically designed to create national unity by suppressing ethnic separatism and religious diversity.

Not surprisingly, radical groups have proliferated in Pakistan, becoming increasingly more extreme and intolerant.

The Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a Deobandi anti-Shia organisation was created, in the wake of the Iranian revolution to counter Shia influence in Pakistan. The rapid spread of fundamentalist Deobandi ideology in Pakistan has been widely attributed to funding from Saudi Arabia.

When the SSP proved insufficiently militant for its growing population of zealots, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) was formed as a splinter group of the SSP.

In the search for ever purer forms of Islam, the ever more violent and intolerant Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami (LeJ-A) was created out of the LeJ which, over the last two years, has claimed responsibility for several bloody atrocities in Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwest province. It has been reported that elements of the LeJ-A now comprise the senior cadres of the Islamic State in Pakistan.

Another so-called Islamic State affiliate operating in western Balochistan out of the city of Turbat, also known as a center for drug trafficking, is Laskar-e-Khorasan, a group accused of killing religious minorities.

Saudi support gradually shifted from the Deobandi to the more radical Ahle-Hadith movement, the Pakistani equivalent of Wahhabism. It is a small ideological step from Ahl-i-Hadith to the Islamic State, which explains the growth of its affiliates in Pakistan.

Among such Sunni-supremacist groups, believed to have received Saudi funding, is Jaish al-Adl which has carried out attacks on Iran from safe havens in Pakistan and reportedly has links to the Islamic State.

While downplaying the Islamic State threat in Afghanistan, US officials have virtually ignored the explosive potential of Islamic State influence in Pakistan, which will only accelerate in the expected power vacuum left after a US withdrawal. 
 
(This article was originally published on <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/feature/next-islamic-state-battlefield-will-be-south-asia-55687">The National Interest)</a> 
 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

How did a small, fringe Wahhabi splinter group, led by a fiery speaker with a sixth-grade education, known mainly for defacing Buddhist symbols, carry out a coordinated and sophisticated terrorist attack on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka?

How did a small, fringe Wahhabi splinter group, led by a fiery speaker with a sixth-grade education, known mainly for defacing Buddhist symbols, carry out a coordinated and sophisticated terrorist attack on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka? The answer is, it didn’t, not without external support, both direct and indirect. The Sri Lanka attack reinforces the notion that the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack, is more a brand around which forces with overlapping goals coalesce to exploit local or regional opportunities than an entity. The events in Sri Lanka were soon followed by the propaganda video reappearance of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who, acknowledging defeat in Syria and specifically citing the Sri Lankan attack, exhorted his followers to expand the fight. Defeat in Syria has triggered a diaspora of Islamic State fighters either to their native lands or to targets of opportunity such as the thriving extremist networks in South Asia. The instigators of that extremism and operating continuously in the background are the global promoters of austere and often intolerant forms of Islam such as Wahhabism-Salafism, financed either by wealthy individuals or nation-states that offer forums for radicalisation and sources for potential jihadi recruits. The main group behind the Sri Lankan bombings, the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), is an ideological offspring of the rapidly growing, Saudi-funded Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ), which has a headquarters in Chennai, India. The TNTJ, a Wahhabi-based organisation, helped establish the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath, from which the NTJ emerged as a splinter. It is a now well-known fact that some Islamic clerics and preachers play a significant role in the radicalisation of young Muslims and their recruitment for terrorist attacks. As the late Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew said about preventing terrorist attacks: “You must use force. But force will only deal with the tip of the problem. In killing the terrorists, you will only kill the worker bees. The queen bees are the preachers, who teach a deviant form of Islam in schools and Islamic centers, who capture and twist the minds of the young.” Today, drug trafficking not only provides funding for terrorism, but there is a growing use of the organisational and logistical capabilities of criminal cartels to support terrorist operations, some of which contribute to the geopolitical ambitions of nation states. In the South Columbo Muslim area of Dehiwala, a drug trafficker named Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, who was designated by the US Department of Treasury as a terrorist supporter in 2003, reportedly set up a distribution hub. In 2018, authorities seized 736 kilograms of Dawood’s heroin. According to one article, Dawood’s D-Company cartel obtains opium from Afghanistan, where production is overseen by the Taliban. From there, logistics and transportation are arranged by Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency (ISI), which provides protection for Dawood in his Karachi base and stipulates the distribution of a portion of the profits to various jihadist and militant groups. There is much concern about the growth of the Islamic State in Afghanistan. There are reports that Islamic State jihadis, who fought in Syria and Iraq, are migrating to Afghanistan, joining disaffected Taliban fighters seeking greater Islamic purity. Although Afghanistan offers a potential power vacuum, which the Islamic State can fill, a far more fertile ground for expansion is in Pakistan. It is a little-known fact that the Islamic State now operating in Afghanistan, originated in Pakistan. Members of the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan or TTP began migrating to Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province as “refugees” in 2010 after Pakistani military operations against the TTP in Orakzai and Khyber Agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It was those “refugees” who provided a foundation for the Islamic State. That base support was augmented by thousands of Pakistanis who fought for the Islamic State in Syria and returned starting in 2013. In January 2015, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) was declared with former TTP commander Hafiz Saeed Khan of Orakzai as the leader, whose twelve-member Shura had nine Pakistanis. It is the growing level of extremism and intolerance in Pakistan that should be of concern, which has been a threat to Afghanistan and will be the main contributor to instability in South Asia. It is the direct result of official Pakistani policy and the activities of Pakistan’s ISI. The “Islamisation” programme initiated by Pakistani President Muhammad Zia ul Haq in the late 1970s, which involved the proliferation of Islamic schools, “madrasas” and the promotion of Islamic law “Sharia,” was specifically designed to create national unity by suppressing ethnic separatism and religious diversity. Not surprisingly, radical groups have proliferated in Pakistan, becoming increasingly more extreme and intolerant. The Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a Deobandi anti-Shia organisation was created, in the wake of the Iranian revolution to counter Shia influence in Pakistan. The rapid spread of fundamentalist Deobandi ideology in Pakistan has been widely attributed to funding from Saudi Arabia. When the SSP proved insufficiently militant for its growing population of zealots, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) was formed as a splinter group of the SSP. In the search for ever purer forms of Islam, the ever more violent and intolerant Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami (LeJ-A) was created out of the LeJ which, over the last two years, has claimed responsibility for several bloody atrocities in Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwest province. It has been reported that elements of the LeJ-A now comprise the senior cadres of the Islamic State in Pakistan. Another so-called Islamic State affiliate operating in western Balochistan out of the city of Turbat, also known as a center for drug trafficking, is Laskar-e-Khorasan, a group accused of killing religious minorities. Saudi support gradually shifted from the Deobandi to the more radical Ahle-Hadith movement, the Pakistani equivalent of Wahhabism. It is a small ideological step from Ahl-i-Hadith to the Islamic State, which explains the growth of its affiliates in Pakistan. Among such Sunni-supremacist groups, believed to have received Saudi funding, is Jaish al-Adl which has carried out attacks on Iran from safe havens in Pakistan and reportedly has links to the Islamic State. While downplaying the Islamic State threat in Afghanistan, US officials have virtually ignored the explosive potential of Islamic State influence in Pakistan, which will only accelerate in the expected power vacuum left after a US withdrawal. (This article was originally published on The National Interest) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

The next Islamic State battlefield will be in South Asia

Sri Lankan police on Sunday discovered a 10-acre camp in the eastern town of Kattankudy, where Islamist militants linked to the deadly Easter attacks are believed to have practiced shooting and bombmaking.

Sri Lanka police discover suspected training camp for Islamist militants

More than 250 innocent victims lost their lives in the carnage on the Easter day and hundreds more were maimed in Colombo recently in synchronised terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. The horrible incident has once again exposed the vulnerability of a democratic society to fanatics ‘motivated’ by distorted interpretation of religion and ‘inspired’ by nightmarish vision of hatred against the ‘enemy’- the ‘other’ who must be eliminated.&nbsp;

Every time such shocking events occur senseless violence is condemned and questions are legitimately raised about failure &nbsp;of intelligence. In the moment of national grief and human suffering the priority is providing relief to the victims and to ensure that the spiral of violence doesn’t spin out of control triggering a communal backlash of revenge and retribution.

Sri Lankan government has responded swiftly and most sensibly. While the officers at the helm responsible for defence and policing &nbsp;have resigned the campaign to trace and eliminate moles in their burrows continues silently.&nbsp;

The country has suffered for decades from acts of terrorism during the long drawn civil war. LTTE that had started as an organisation leading a separatist movement for the establishment of &nbsp;Eelam (an independent Tamil state) carved out of northern provinces soon uncared its claws and fangs as a brutal terrorist organisation led by a ruthless megalomaniac. Prabhakaran self proclaimed protector of oppressed minority turned in to a sadistic bloodthirsty predator. LTTE had established links with terrorists of different hues all over the world. The Tamil insurgency was put down only after brutal use of force that at times didn’t spare innocent civilians. Old wounds take time to heal have suddenly been reopened painfully.&nbsp; 
 
What is &nbsp;most alarming is that ‘links’ that are emerging connecting perpetrators of the barbaric acts in Sri Lanka with like minded coreligionists in Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Much before the tragedy in Colombo irrefutable evidence had surfaced about growing menace of proselytising Islamic zealots in these southern states. Unfortunately, no one had the courage to expose the nexus between corrupt police officers, opportunist politicians and anti social criminals who abused religion as a protective shield. In a secular democratic state it becomes almost impossible to identify a member of the minority community as a prime ‘suspect’ involved in terrorist activities. Intelligence gathered or received fro friends and allies is of little use unless its actionable. &nbsp;

India can not remain a silent spectator to terrorist threats in its neighbourhood as they impinge directly on its own security. Strategic analysts have been warning us that faced with imminent defeat in battlefields of West Asia the dreaded ISIS is likely to shift&nbsp;its attention to South and South East Asia.&nbsp;

The USA and China blinkered by their own strategic interests have let Pakistan transform itself into a sanctuary for terrorists belonging to the aggressive and intolerant Wahabi sect of Islam. Over the years, the home grown Taliban have been outnumbered by mujahideen and fedayeen. Flush with funds provided by the Saudis forces of fundamentalist dogmatic Islam have struck deep roots in Pakistan from where they have&nbsp;spread their tentacles to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives. With both the brainwashed cadres of the ISIS and the Wahabi proteges of Saudi Arab waging a war for the hearts and minds of young Muslims right here where we live is confronting us with complex challenges- both in diplomatic arena and in domestic politics. &nbsp;

It is almost impossible to ensure 100&nbsp;per cent protection against attacks launched &nbsp;by a suicidal lone wolf or a pack of rabid canines. Not even the all powerful USA and Israel always on combat ready retaliatory alert have been able to do so. Nor can one prescribe that to reduce the chances of a terrors strike we covert an open society to a police state. Viewing all members of a minority (or for that the some among the dominant matter majority) with suspicion can only be counter productive.&nbsp;

Some analysts are suggesting that rich and well educated terrorists who appear to have replaced the cannon fodder recruited from hopeless slums may well be suffering from serious psychiatric disorders- suicidal tendencies and one shouldn’t hasten to draw wrong conclusions about their religious identities. The attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand &nbsp;was the work of a white, Christian racist and the bloody assault on a Synagogue in New York can’t be blamed on the ‘Jehadis’. We feel that empathy and compassion should be saved for the victims. 
 
Humane criminology can only cloud our vision distract us from the task of killing cancerous cell before they spread to vital organs and disease becomes incurable. There is no time to be lost.&nbsp; 
 
 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)&nbsp;

More than 250 innocent victims lost their lives in the carnage on the Easter day and hundreds more were maimed in Colombo recently in synchronised terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

More than 250 innocent victims lost their lives in the carnage on the Easter day and hundreds more were maimed in Colombo recently in synchronised terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. The horrible incident has once again exposed the vulnerability of a democratic society to fanatics ‘motivated’ by distorted interpretation of religion and ‘inspired’ by nightmarish vision of hatred against the ‘enemy’- the ‘other’ who must be eliminated. Every time such shocking events occur senseless violence is condemned and questions are legitimately raised about failure of intelligence. In the moment of national grief and human suffering the priority is providing relief to the victims and to ensure that the spiral of violence doesn’t spin out of control triggering a communal backlash of revenge and retribution. Sri Lankan government has responded swiftly and most sensibly. While the officers at the helm responsible for defence and policing have resigned the campaign to trace and eliminate moles in their burrows continues silently. The country has suffered for decades from acts of terrorism during the long drawn civil war. LTTE that had started as an organisation leading a separatist movement for the establishment of Eelam (an independent Tamil state) carved out of northern provinces soon uncared its claws and fangs as a brutal terrorist organisation led by a ruthless megalomaniac. Prabhakaran self proclaimed protector of oppressed minority turned in to a sadistic bloodthirsty predator. LTTE had established links with terrorists of different hues all over the world. The Tamil insurgency was put down only after brutal use of force that at times didn’t spare innocent civilians. Old wounds take time to heal have suddenly been reopened painfully. What is most alarming is that ‘links’ that are emerging connecting perpetrators of the barbaric acts in Sri Lanka with like minded coreligionists in Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Much before the tragedy in Colombo irrefutable evidence had surfaced about growing menace of proselytising Islamic zealots in these southern states. Unfortunately, no one had the courage to expose the nexus between corrupt police officers, opportunist politicians and anti social criminals who abused religion as a protective shield. In a secular democratic state it becomes almost impossible to identify a member of the minority community as a prime ‘suspect’ involved in terrorist activities. Intelligence gathered or received fro friends and allies is of little use unless its actionable. India can not remain a silent spectator to terrorist threats in its neighbourhood as they impinge directly on its own security. Strategic analysts have been warning us that faced with imminent defeat in battlefields of West Asia the dreaded ISIS is likely to shift its attention to South and South East Asia. The USA and China blinkered by their own strategic interests have let Pakistan transform itself into a sanctuary for terrorists belonging to the aggressive and intolerant Wahabi sect of Islam. Over the years, the home grown Taliban have been outnumbered by mujahideen and fedayeen. Flush with funds provided by the Saudis forces of fundamentalist dogmatic Islam have struck deep roots in Pakistan from where they have spread their tentacles to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives. With both the brainwashed cadres of the ISIS and the Wahabi proteges of Saudi Arab waging a war for the hearts and minds of young Muslims right here where we live is confronting us with complex challenges- both in diplomatic arena and in domestic politics. It is almost impossible to ensure 100 per cent protection against attacks launched by a suicidal lone wolf or a pack of rabid canines. Not even the all powerful USA and Israel always on combat ready retaliatory alert have been able to do so. Nor can one prescribe that to reduce the chances of a terrors strike we covert an open society to a police state. Viewing all members of a minority (or for that the some among the dominant matter majority) with suspicion can only be counter productive. Some analysts are suggesting that rich and well educated terrorists who appear to have replaced the cannon fodder recruited from hopeless slums may well be suffering from serious psychiatric disorders- suicidal tendencies and one shouldn’t hasten to draw wrong conclusions about their religious identities. The attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand was the work of a white, Christian racist and the bloody assault on a Synagogue in New York can’t be blamed on the ‘Jehadis’. We feel that empathy and compassion should be saved for the victims. Humane criminology can only cloud our vision distract us from the task of killing cancerous cell before they spread to vital organs and disease becomes incurable. There is no time to be lost. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

Facing imminent defeat in Syria and Iraq, ISIS shifts its attention to South Asia

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has assured hoteliers that the government will give them maximum financial relief to revive the lucrative tourism industry hit by the country's worst terror attack on<a href="https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;q=https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/father-two-brothers-of-sri-lanka-suicide-bombings-mastermind-killed-in-gun-battle-214078&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjKssT0lPfhAhUe7HMBHal5CKcQFjACegQIDxAC&amp;usg=AOvVaw2ouH99LwR5FmTef3zOQCIc"> Easter Sunday that killed 253 people, including 40 foreigners.</a>

Tourism accounts for about five per cent of Sri Lanka's economy, with India, Britain and China being the main markets.

India is the largest source market for <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/sri-lanka-on-alert-for-attacks-by-militants-dressed-in-uniforms-214411">Sri Lanka</a>, which received 2.3 million tourists from around the world in 2018.

Around 450,000 Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka last year and the island nation was expecting the total Indian tourist arrivals to cross one million in 2019.

President Sirisena acknowledged during his meeting on Monday with the country's hoteliers that the tourism and hotel industries were worst hit after the string of powerful blasts ripped through three churches and as many luxury hotels on Easter Sunday, killing 253 people and injuring more than 500 others.

The bombs tore through three five-star hotels in Colombo: the Cinnamon Grand, the Shangri La and the Kingsbury. Forty foreigners, including 11 Indian nationals, died in the attacks.

Sirisena requested Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy to provide "maximum financial relief" immediately to the hoteliers, Sunday Times reported.

Hotels Association President Sanath Ukwatte said hoteliers had invested large sums of money in the development of the hotels and requested the government to provide a moratorium or waiver on the capital and interest for a period of at least two years.

During the meeting, the hoteliers also asked the government to hire the services of a professional public relations and communications unit to send out one message to the world.

President Sirisena agreed to appoint a Cabinet sub-committee to look into the requirements of the hoteliers, the report said.

The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Ministers, ministry officials and members of the industry.

The Easter Sunday blasts were the first time that tourists were specifically targeted.

Following the bombings, the US, Britain, Australia, India and Israel warned their nationals against visiting Sri Lanka.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera recently told reporters that tourism will be the worst affected.

"We expect a 30 per cent drop in arrivals and that means a loss of about $1.5 billion in foreign exchange," Samaraweera said, adding that the country could take up to two years to fully recover from the deadly bombings which shattered a decade of peace in the country.

Mount Lavinia Hotel south of the capital, a popular site for the tourists, has said there have been a large number of cancellations.

Galle Face Hotel top official Chandra Mohotti also said, "there will be huge cancellations".

In his first reaction to Sunday's blasts, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the tourism industry will be hit by the blasts.

"There will be a downward trend, Tourism will get affected. There may be fund outflows," Wickremesinghe said.

The industry officials said the rebound from the attacks would depend on the security measures to be adopted.

Sri Lanka's tourism industry faced a difficult time until a decade ago due to the three-decade civil war with the LTTE which claimed at least 100,000 lives.

However, in recent years the island nation has emerged as a top tourist destination in Asia.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has assured hoteliers that the government will give them maximum financial relief to revive the lucrative tourism industry hit by the country's worst terror attack on Easter Sunday that killed 253 people, including 40 foreigners.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has assured hoteliers that the government will give them maximum financial relief to revive the lucrative tourism industry hit by the country's worst terror attack on Easter Sunday that killed 253 people, including 40 foreigners. Tourism accounts for about five per cent of Sri Lanka's economy, with India, Britain and China being the main markets. India is the largest source market for Sri Lanka, which received 2.3 million tourists from around the world in 2018. Around 450,000 Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka last year and the island nation was expecting the total Indian tourist arrivals to cross one million in 2019. President Sirisena acknowledged during his meeting on Monday with the country's hoteliers that the tourism and hotel industries were worst hit after the string of powerful blasts ripped through three churches and as many luxury hotels on Easter Sunday, killing 253 people and injuring more than 500 others. The bombs tore through three five-star hotels in Colombo: the Cinnamon Grand, the Shangri La and the Kingsbury. Forty foreigners, including 11 Indian nationals, died in the attacks. Sirisena requested Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy to provide "maximum financial relief" immediately to the hoteliers, Sunday Times reported. Hotels Association President Sanath Ukwatte said hoteliers had invested large sums of money in the development of the hotels and requested the government to provide a moratorium or waiver on the capital and interest for a period of at least two years. During the meeting, the hoteliers also asked the government to hire the services of a professional public relations and communications unit to send out one message to the world. President Sirisena agreed to appoint a Cabinet sub-committee to look into the requirements of the hoteliers, the report said. The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Ministers, ministry officials and members of the industry. The Easter Sunday blasts were the first time that tourists were specifically targeted. Following the bombings, the US, Britain, Australia, India and Israel warned their nationals against visiting Sri Lanka. Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera recently told reporters that tourism will be the worst affected. "We expect a 30 per cent drop in arrivals and that means a loss of about $1.5 billion in foreign exchange," Samaraweera said, adding that the country could take up to two years to fully recover from the deadly bombings which shattered a decade of peace in the country. Mount Lavinia Hotel south of the capital, a popular site for the tourists, has said there have been a large number of cancellations. Galle Face Hotel top official Chandra Mohotti also said, "there will be huge cancellations". In his first reaction to Sunday's blasts, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the tourism industry will be hit by the blasts. "There will be a downward trend, Tourism will get affected. There may be fund outflows," Wickremesinghe said. The industry officials said the rebound from the attacks would depend on the security measures to be adopted. Sri Lanka's tourism industry faced a difficult time until a decade ago due to the three-decade civil war with the LTTE which claimed at least 100,000 lives. However, in recent years the island nation has emerged as a top tourist destination in Asia.

Sri Lankan President Sirisena assures hoteliers maximum financial help to revive tourism

The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday lifted the ban on social media platforms WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook with immediate effect.

The government had imposed the ban after the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/wife-daughter-of-sri-lanka-bombings-mastermind-will-survive-blast-hospital-214469">suicide bombings on April 21st</a> in which over 250 people were killed, including 42 nationals.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/sri-lanka-blasts-sri-lankan-police-chief-sent-on-leave-after-a-week-of-blasts-214632/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

On Monday, authorities had banned face veils as part of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/tourist-arrivals-in-colombo-to-drop-by-50-after-bombings-sri-lanka-tourism-chief-214452">emergency law</a> imposed on the country after the bombings.

It is a presidential order to ban any dress covering faces with immediate effect," Dharmasri Bandara Ekanayake, a spokesman for President Maithripala Sirisena said.

In order to put a new security system in place, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena appointed Chandana Wickramaratne as new acting police chief even as the ex-chief Pujith Jayasundara refused to resign.

Jayasundara was sent on "compulsory leave" after he remained defiant. Jayasundara refused to take responsibility for the intelligence failure that led to Easter Sunday bombings.

Nearly 10,000 soldiers have been deployed across the island to carry out searches since the Easter Day attacks on three churches and four hotels, most of which were in the capital Colombo. Security forces have detained 100 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bombings. &nbsp;Sri Lankan officials have identified Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran who blew himself up in the Shangri-la attack as the mastermind behind the suicide attacks.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study,

Several countries including the US, UK have told its citizens to reconsider travelling to Sri Lanka in the wake of the attacks.&nbsp;

"Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka," the US State Department said in an advisory adding that it had ordered the departure of all school-age family members of US government employees.

The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday lifted the ban on social media platforms WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook with immediate effect. The government had imposed the ban after the suicide bombings on April 21st in which over 250 people were killed, including 42 nationals.

The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday lifted the ban on social media platforms WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook with immediate effect. The government had imposed the ban after the suicide bombings on April 21st in which over 250 people were killed, including 42 nationals. On Monday, authorities had banned face veils as part of emergency law imposed on the country after the bombings. It is a presidential order to ban any dress covering faces with immediate effect," Dharmasri Bandara Ekanayake, a spokesman for President Maithripala Sirisena said. In order to put a new security system in place, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena appointed Chandana Wickramaratne as new acting police chief even as the ex-chief Pujith Jayasundara refused to resign. Jayasundara was sent on "compulsory leave" after he remained defiant. Jayasundara refused to take responsibility for the intelligence failure that led to Easter Sunday bombings. Nearly 10,000 soldiers have been deployed across the island to carry out searches since the Easter Day attacks on three churches and four hotels, most of which were in the capital Colombo. Security forces have detained 100 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bombings. Sri Lankan officials have identified Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran who blew himself up in the Shangri-la attack as the mastermind behind the suicide attacks. Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, Several countries including the US, UK have told its citizens to reconsider travelling to Sri Lanka in the wake of the attacks. "Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka," the US State Department said in an advisory adding that it had ordered the departure of all school-age family members of US government employees.

Sri Lanka government lifts ban on social media platforms

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday announced <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/sri-lanka-lifts-nationwide-night-curfew-214164">a ban on face covering</a>, a week after Islamist militants carried out coordinated suicide bombings that killed 253 people.

Sirisena said he was using emergency powers to ban <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/how-laid-back-sri-lanka-became-a-soft-target-for-islamist-strike-214247">any form of face covering in public</a>. The restriction will take effect from Monday, his office said in a statement.

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P_iD63GPy-A" width="560"></iframe>

"The ban is to ensure national security... No one should obscure their faces to make identification difficult," the statement said.

It came days after local Islamic clerics urged Muslim women not to cover their faces amid fears of a backlash after the bombings carried out by jihadists affiliated to the Islamic State group.

Muslims in the majority Buddhist nation account for about 10 per cent of its 21 million population.&nbsp;

Most Sri Lankan Muslims practise a liberal form of the religion and only a small number of women wear the niqab.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday announced a ban on face covering, a week after Islamist militants carried out coordinated suicide bombings that killed 253 people.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday announced a ban on face covering, a week after Islamist militants carried out coordinated suicide bombings that killed 253 people. Sirisena said he was using emergency powers to ban any form of face covering in public. The restriction will take effect from Monday, his office said in a statement. "The ban is to ensure national security... No one should obscure their faces to make identification difficult," the statement said. It came days after local Islamic clerics urged Muslim women not to cover their faces amid fears of a backlash after the bombings carried out by jihadists affiliated to the Islamic State group. Muslims in the majority Buddhist nation account for about 10 per cent of its 21 million population. Most Sri Lankan Muslims practise a liberal form of the religion and only a small number of women wear the niqab.

Post Easter attacks, Sri Lanka President Sirisena bans face covering

The cancellations started before the dust had settled on the hotels and churches hit by <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/sri-lanka-cardinal-calls-suicide-attacks-insult-to-humanity-at-memorial-service-214039">suicide bombers in Sri Lanka</a> as tourists and operators pressed the panic button.

Sanath Ukwatte, chairman of the colonial-era Mount Lavinia hotel in Colombo, said he lost about 30 per cent of his bookings within days of the Easter <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/islamic-state-says-its-fighters-behind-police-clashes-in-sri-lanka-214029">Sunday attacks that killed 253 people</a>.

Many holidaymakers got the first plane out of Colombo after the blasts -- at least 40 foreigners were among the dead -- raising fears for a tourism industry that had managed to move on from the shadows of a decades-long civil war.

The United States, Britain, Australia, India and Israel have all warned their nationals against visiting, while the Netherlands is organising a special flight to evacuate hundreds of Dutch tourists.&nbsp;

On Friday, European travel giant TUI announced it had stopped taking bookings for the South Asian country.

And the crisis could get worse before it gets better for the island nation, whose palm-fringed beaches and mountain tea plantations were recently named the best place to visit in 2019 by the Lonely Planet guide.

Armed guards

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo">Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera had hoped tourism would earn a record $5.0 billion this year, up from $4.4 billion in 2018. He thinks the attacks could now see the country lose up to one-third of that.</div>

Tourism accounts for about five per cent of the economy, with Britain, India and China the main markets. Official figures show tourist arrivals in the first quarter of this year jumped 4.6 per cent to 740,600 from 2018.

But with armed guards now a fixture in some Colombo hotels and cancellations flooding in after the carnage unleashed by coordinated suicide attacks, Samaraweera must work out a rescue plan for establishments now facing ruin.

"We expect a 30 per cent drop in arrivals and that means a loss of about $1.5 billion in foreign exchange," he said on Friday.

Ruchir Desai, a senior investment analyst with Asia Frontier Capital in Hong Kong, said the next year will be a tough one for Sri Lanka.

"Given the scale of the attack I still think you would see a negative impact on the industry," Desai told AFP.

"It should recover," he added, "obviously it depends on the steps the government takes to improve stability."

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/sri-lanka-blasts-tourists-in-lanka-asked-to-stay-alert-214006/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Ukwatte, who is also president of the Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, hopes Sri Lanka can "bounce back".

Sri Lanka's tourism is heading into its low season, and Ukwatte believes if confidence can be restored by October or November, "then we will be able to revive the industry with European winter travellers."&nbsp;

Finance Minister Samaraweera highlighted how other countries hit by Islamic State-inspired attacks rebuilt their image and convinced tourists to come back.

"Typically, countries that suffer isolated IS-style attacks see tourism recovering within one-to-two years, as long as root causes are addressed and security measures taken are well communicated," the minister said.

He pointed to tourist industries in Belgium, France, Spain and Tunisia as countries which had all managed to bounce back after suffering indiscriminate terror attacks.

Bad message

Much will depend on how the government gets its message across, observers said.

Canadian adventure tourism promoter Wade Campbell criticised the government's communications after the attacks, particularly a top defence ministry official -- who has since resigned -- who said Sri Lankan hotels should have arranged their own security to avoid being hit.

Danger is "a perception thing," said Campbell, who is now looking at redirecting bookings to rival destinations like Nepal.

Italians Donatella Papi and her husband Maurizio Fantappie were on a 25-day holiday in eastern Sri Lanka when the bombers struck.

"My husband wanted to leave after the bombings, he suggested going to Thailand. But I wasn't too scared then, I thought it would settle down," said Papi.

"I think Sri Lanka tourism will fall -- we are very sad about it. This year is the anniversary of the end of the war -- it was supposed to be a celebration," she said.

"We have no regrets about staying on but we are very sad and worried -- for our safety and for Sri Lanka."

The cancellations started before the dust had settled on the hotels and churches hit by suicide bombers in Sri Lanka as tourists and operators pressed the panic button.

The cancellations started before the dust had settled on the hotels and churches hit by suicide bombers in Sri Lanka as tourists and operators pressed the panic button. Sanath Ukwatte, chairman of the colonial-era Mount Lavinia hotel in Colombo, said he lost about 30 per cent of his bookings within days of the Easter Sunday attacks that killed 253 people. Many holidaymakers got the first plane out of Colombo after the blasts -- at least 40 foreigners were among the dead -- raising fears for a tourism industry that had managed to move on from the shadows of a decades-long civil war. The United States, Britain, Australia, India and Israel have all warned their nationals against visiting, while the Netherlands is organising a special flight to evacuate hundreds of Dutch tourists. On Friday, European travel giant TUI announced it had stopped taking bookings for the South Asian country. And the crisis could get worse before it gets better for the island nation, whose palm-fringed beaches and mountain tea plantations were recently named the best place to visit in 2019 by the Lonely Planet guide. Armed guards Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera had hoped tourism would earn a record $5.0 billion this year, up from $4.4 billion in 2018. He thinks the attacks could now see the country lose up to one-third of that. Tourism accounts for about five per cent of the economy, with Britain, India and China the main markets. Official figures show tourist arrivals in the first quarter of this year jumped 4.6 per cent to 740,600 from 2018. But with armed guards now a fixture in some Colombo hotels and cancellations flooding in after the carnage unleashed by coordinated suicide attacks, Samaraweera must work out a rescue plan for establishments now facing ruin. "We expect a 30 per cent drop in arrivals and that means a loss of about $1.5 billion in foreign exchange," he said on Friday. Ruchir Desai, a senior investment analyst with Asia Frontier Capital in Hong Kong, said the next year will be a tough one for Sri Lanka. "Given the scale of the attack I still think you would see a negative impact on the industry," Desai told AFP. "It should recover," he added, "obviously it depends on the steps the government takes to improve stability." Ukwatte, who is also president of the Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, hopes Sri Lanka can "bounce back". Sri Lanka's tourism is heading into its low season, and Ukwatte believes if confidence can be restored by October or November, "then we will be able to revive the industry with European winter travellers." Finance Minister Samaraweera highlighted how other countries hit by Islamic State-inspired attacks rebuilt their image and convinced tourists to come back. "Typically, countries that suffer isolated IS-style attacks see tourism recovering within one-to-two years, as long as root causes are addressed and security measures taken are well communicated," the minister said. He pointed to tourist industries in Belgium, France, Spain and Tunisia as countries which had all managed to bounce back after suffering indiscriminate terror attacks. Bad message Much will depend on how the government gets its message across, observers said. Canadian adventure tourism promoter Wade Campbell criticised the government's communications after the attacks, particularly a top defence ministry official -- who has since resigned -- who said Sri Lankan hotels should have arranged their own security to avoid being hit. Danger is "a perception thing," said Campbell, who is now looking at redirecting bookings to rival destinations like Nepal. Italians Donatella Papi and her husband Maurizio Fantappie were on a 25-day holiday in eastern Sri Lanka when the bombers struck. "My husband wanted to leave after the bombings, he suggested going to Thailand. But I wasn't too scared then, I thought it would settle down," said Papi. "I think Sri Lanka tourism will fall -- we are very sad about it. This year is the anniversary of the end of the war -- it was supposed to be a celebration," she said. "We have no regrets about staying on but we are very sad and worried -- for our safety and for Sri Lanka."

Sri Lanka resorts face uncertain future after suicide blasts

Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic leader on Sunday condemned the Easter attacks as "an insult to humanity" as the tense and grief-stricken country marked a week since <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/islamic-state-says-its-fighters-behind-police-clashes-in-sri-lanka-214029">suicide bombers hit three churches and three luxury hotels</a>.

The Archbishop of Colombo, <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/sri-lanka-cardinal-calls-suicide-attacks-insult-to-humanity-at-memorial-service-214039">Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith</a>, held a private mass after cancelling all public services amid fears of a repeat of the bombings that killed 253 people.&nbsp;

A heavily-guarded vigil was held outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo at 8.45am, the moment the bomber struck the church last week, killing dozens of worshippers.

"What happened last Sunday is a great tragedy, an insult to humanity," the cardinal said in a chapel at his residence, where the mass was attended by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

"Today during this mass we are paying attention to last Sunday's tragedy and we try to understand it," he said calling for prayers for the victims.

"We pray that in this country there will be peace and co-existence and understanding each other without division," he said.

The Sri Lankan military is still hunting Islamic State-linked jihadists and security across the country remains high.

Stuck in time

At exactly 8.45am, the singing of hymns by scores of people outside St. Anthony's church stopped and the bells tolled. The hands on the tower clock are stuck at the time of the blast.

"I come to this church every Sunday, it feels like my second home," said Dharshika Fernando, 19, fighting back tears.&nbsp;

"It feels like people blasted my own home."

Thousands of Sri Lankan troops remained on the streets, guarding churches and mosques for the symbolic day.

Security forces also carried out new arrests, a day after at least 15 people were killed in a raid on a jihadist hideout where suicide bombers blew themselves up.

Police said they arrested two "most wanted" Muslim suspects in connection with the Easter bombings, taking the total number in detention to more than 100.

Mohamed Saadik Abdul Haq and Mohamed Saahid Abdul Haq were on a list of six "most wanted" radicals issued on Thursday.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the two were arrested in the central region of Nawalapitiya, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) east of Colombo on Saturday night.

President Sirisena said on Friday there are about 140 IS followers across the country who were still being hunted.&nbsp;

"We can and we will eradicate all of them very soon," Sirisena vowed.

Schools stay closed

On Saturday, three men set off explosives killing themselves, three women and six children after a showdown with security forces near the eastern town of Kalmunai.

Police said three other suspected suicide bombers were shot dead by security forces outside the hideout that had been under siege for more than an hour. A civilian was also killed in crossfire.

The Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings, said the three men who blew themselves up at Kalmunai were also members of the militant group.

A statement posted by the IS propaganda unit, Amaq News Agency, said the men "clashed with them (Sri Lankan police) with automatic weapons, and after exhausting their ammunition, detonated on them their explosive belts."

Kalmunai is in the same region as the hometown of the jihadist Zahran Hashim who founded the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) group accused of staging the attacks.

Another raid in the region targeted a house where authorities said Hashim and the other sucide bombers filmed a pledge of allegiance to IS before staging their attacks.

The video was shown by IS when it made its claim of responsibility.

Video on state television showed explosives, a generator, a drone and a large quantity of batteries inside the converted studio. An IS flag and uniforms were also found, police said.

The firebrand cleric is said to have died in the attack on the Shangri-La, one of three Colombo hotels hit by suicide bombers at the same time as the churches.

Sirisena used emergency powers to officially ban the NTJ and a splinter group identified as Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem (JMI) on Saturday, his office announced.

In a sign of the tensions, the reopening of schools across Sri Lanka scheduled for Monday has been put back one week. Authorities have also kept up a 10.00 pm to 4.00 am nationwide curfew.

Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic leader on Sunday condemned the Easter attacks as "an insult to humanity" as the tense and grief-stricken country marked a week since suicide bombers hit three churches and three luxury hotels.

Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic leader on Sunday condemned the Easter attacks as "an insult to humanity" as the tense and grief-stricken country marked a week since suicide bombers hit three churches and three luxury hotels. The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, held a private mass after cancelling all public services amid fears of a repeat of the bombings that killed 253 people. A heavily-guarded vigil was held outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo at 8.45am, the moment the bomber struck the church last week, killing dozens of worshippers. "What happened last Sunday is a great tragedy, an insult to humanity," the cardinal said in a chapel at his residence, where the mass was attended by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. "Today during this mass we are paying attention to last Sunday's tragedy and we try to understand it," he said calling for prayers for the victims. "We pray that in this country there will be peace and co-existence and understanding each other without division," he said. The Sri Lankan military is still hunting Islamic State-linked jihadists and security across the country remains high. Stuck in time At exactly 8.45am, the singing of hymns by scores of people outside St. Anthony's church stopped and the bells tolled. The hands on the tower clock are stuck at the time of the blast. "I come to this church every Sunday, it feels like my second home," said Dharshika Fernando, 19, fighting back tears. "It feels like people blasted my own home." Thousands of Sri Lankan troops remained on the streets, guarding churches and mosques for the symbolic day. Security forces also carried out new arrests, a day after at least 15 people were killed in a raid on a jihadist hideout where suicide bombers blew themselves up. Police said they arrested two "most wanted" Muslim suspects in connection with the Easter bombings, taking the total number in detention to more than 100. Mohamed Saadik Abdul Haq and Mohamed Saahid Abdul Haq were on a list of six "most wanted" radicals issued on Thursday. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the two were arrested in the central region of Nawalapitiya, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) east of Colombo on Saturday night. President Sirisena said on Friday there are about 140 IS followers across the country who were still being hunted. "We can and we will eradicate all of them very soon," Sirisena vowed. Schools stay closed On Saturday, three men set off explosives killing themselves, three women and six children after a showdown with security forces near the eastern town of Kalmunai. Police said three other suspected suicide bombers were shot dead by security forces outside the hideout that had been under siege for more than an hour. A civilian was also killed in crossfire. The Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings, said the three men who blew themselves up at Kalmunai were also members of the militant group. A statement posted by the IS propaganda unit, Amaq News Agency, said the men "clashed with them (Sri Lankan police) with automatic weapons, and after exhausting their ammunition, detonated on them their explosive belts." Kalmunai is in the same region as the hometown of the jihadist Zahran Hashim who founded the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) group accused of staging the attacks. Another raid in the region targeted a house where authorities said Hashim and the other sucide bombers filmed a pledge of allegiance to IS before staging their attacks. The video was shown by IS when it made its claim of responsibility. Video on state television showed explosives, a generator, a drone and a large quantity of batteries inside the converted studio. An IS flag and uniforms were also found, police said. The firebrand cleric is said to have died in the attack on the Shangri-La, one of three Colombo hotels hit by suicide bombers at the same time as the churches. Sirisena used emergency powers to officially ban the NTJ and a splinter group identified as Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem (JMI) on Saturday, his office announced. In a sign of the tensions, the reopening of schools across Sri Lanka scheduled for Monday has been put back one week. Authorities have also kept up a 10.00 pm to 4.00 am nationwide curfew.

Security high as Sri Lanka marks one week from suicide attacks

By Greg Barton

In the wake of any tragedy, it should be enough to grieve and stand in solidarity with those who mourn. With a massive toll – about 250 dead, according to revised government figures – it feels disrespectful to the people of Sri Lanka to be dissecting what went wrong even as the dead are being buried.

But the reality is that most, if not all, of these lives, need not have been taken. We owe it to them and their loved ones to make sense of what happened and work towards doing all that can be done to ensure it does not happen again.

The Easter attacks represent one of the most lethal and serious terrorist operations since the September 11 attacks in the US, outside of attacks within active conflict zones. And this in a now peaceful country, which for all its history of civil war and ethno-nationalist terrorism in decades past has never had a problem with jihadi radical Islamist terrorism.

A return to deadlier, more coordinated strikes

The long-anticipated claim of responsibility for the attacks was made by the Islamic State (IS) on Tuesday night. This could help explain how one local cell based around a single extended family circle of hateful extremists not previously known for terrorism could execute such a massive attack. It was larger even than IS’s previous truck-bomb attacks in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The attacks follow a familiar, if now rarely seen, IS operandi of coordinated suicide bombings. The targeting of Catholic churches, which made little sense initially in the context of the domestic social issues at the heart of the country’s recent civil war, fit an all-too-familiar pattern of IS attacks on Christians, along with fellow Muslims.

The fact that 40 or more Sri Lankans travelled to Syria to fight with IS could help explain how the terror network was able to build vital personal links in the very small community of Sri Lankan Islamist extremists so it could subcontract its attack plans to them. At this point, the precise involvement of returnees from Syria and foreign IS supporters in the bombings remains under investigation.

The Easter weekend attacks more resemble the al-Qaeda attacks of the 2000s than they do recent attacks of IS. Like the 2000 attack of the USS Cole in Yemen, the September attacks in New York and Washington, the 2002 bombings in Bali, the 2003 truck bombs in Istanbul, the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, the 2005 tube and bus bombings in London, the Sri Lanka bombings involved multiple attackers acting in concert. With the exception of September 11, all of these also involved improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The Sri Lanka bombings exceeded all but the September 11 attacks in sophistication and deadliness, despite the fact the perpetrators were previously known only for acts of hateful vandalism.

Over the past decade, al-Qaeda has been unable to carry out significant attacks outside of conflict zones. It has also become increasingly focused on “reputation management” and has tended to avoid indiscriminate mass killings, all the whilst growing its global network of affiliates.

The emergence of IS saw the tempo and scale of terrorist attacks transformed. Most attacks took place in conflict zones (Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, southern Philippines).

A number of significant attacks were conducted well beyond the battlefield. There were at least four such attacks in 2014, 16 in 2015, 22 in 2016, 18 in 2017, and 10 in 2018. The vast majority of these attacks were conducted by lone actors.

Why was it that, outside of conflict zones, not just Al-Qaeda but even IS at the height of its powers focused largely on lone-actor attacks?

It is probably not for want of trying. The reason is that most larger, more ambitious plots were tripped-up by intelligence intercepts. This is especially the case in stable democracies, including our neighbours Indonesia and Malaysia.

Why Sri Lanka?

The other big question is how one of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever was able to be executed in Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka was a soft target. Having successfully defeated the Tamil Tiger rebel group a decade ago through military might, Sri Lanka has become complacent. It has not seen a pressing need to develop police and non-military intelligence capacity to counter terrorism.

At the same time, it has struggled with good governance and political stability. Just six months ago, it faced a major constitutional crisis when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked his deputy, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and attempted to replace him with the former prime minister and president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The attempt failed, but in the stand-off that ensued, Wickremesinghe, and ministers loyal to him, were excluded from intelligence briefings. In particular, they say that they were left unaware of the multiple warnings issued by the Indian intelligence service, RAW, to the authorities in Colombo about the extremist figures who played a key role in the Easter attacks.

Thus, despite several discoveries earlier this year of large amounts of explosives stored in remote rural locations on the island, and multiple warnings from the Indians, including final alerts just hours before Sunday’s attacks, the government and security community were left distracted and caught off-guard.

Between “fighting the last war” and fighting each other, they deluded themselves that there was no imminent terrorist threat.

What other countries are vulnerable?

If the massive attacks in Sri Lanka over Easter serve to remind us that IS is very far from being a spent force, the question is where this energetic and well-resourced network will strike next.

For all that it achieved in Sri Lanka, IS is unlikely to be able to build an enduring presence there. So long as the Sri Lankan government and people emerge from this trauma with renewed commitment to unity – and with elections at the end of the year, this is far from certain – the “perfect storm” conditions exploited by IS are unlikely to be repeated.

So where else is IS likely to find opportunity? India and Bangladesh continue to present opportunities, as does much of Central Asia. In our region, it is Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines that we should be most worried about.

Malaysia has emerged stronger and more stable from its swing-back to democracy but continues to be worryingly in denial about the extent to which it is vulnerable to terrorist attacks, downplaying the very good work done over many years by the Special Branch of the Royal National Malaysian Police.

Thailand and the Philippines remain less politically stable, and rather more brittle than they care too acknowledge. And both tend to delude themselves into thinking that the problems of their southern extremes will never manifest in a terror attack in Bangkok or Manila, respectively.

The people of Sri Lanka have paid far too high price for the lessons of the Easter weekend attacks to be ignored or forgotten.

(Greg Barton is Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University)

(This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/islamic-state-has-claimed-responsibility-for-the-sri-lanka-terror-attack-heres-what-that-means-115915">original article</a>)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.) 
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By Greg Barton In the wake of any tragedy, it should be enough to grieve and stand in solidarity with those who mourn. With a massive toll – about 250 dead, according to revised government figures – it feels disrespectful to the people of Sri Lanka to be dissecting what went wrong even as the dead are being buried.

By Greg Barton In the wake of any tragedy, it should be enough to grieve and stand in solidarity with those who mourn. With a massive toll – about 250 dead, according to revised government figures – it feels disrespectful to the people of Sri Lanka to be dissecting what went wrong even as the dead are being buried. But the reality is that most, if not all, of these lives, need not have been taken. We owe it to them and their loved ones to make sense of what happened and work towards doing all that can be done to ensure it does not happen again. The Easter attacks represent one of the most lethal and serious terrorist operations since the September 11 attacks in the US, outside of attacks within active conflict zones. And this in a now peaceful country, which for all its history of civil war and ethno-nationalist terrorism in decades past has never had a problem with jihadi radical Islamist terrorism. A return to deadlier, more coordinated strikes The long-anticipated claim of responsibility for the attacks was made by the Islamic State (IS) on Tuesday night. This could help explain how one local cell based around a single extended family circle of hateful extremists not previously known for terrorism could execute such a massive attack. It was larger even than IS’s previous truck-bomb attacks in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The attacks follow a familiar, if now rarely seen, IS operandi of coordinated suicide bombings. The targeting of Catholic churches, which made little sense initially in the context of the domestic social issues at the heart of the country’s recent civil war, fit an all-too-familiar pattern of IS attacks on Christians, along with fellow Muslims. The fact that 40 or more Sri Lankans travelled to Syria to fight with IS could help explain how the terror network was able to build vital personal links in the very small community of Sri Lankan Islamist extremists so it could subcontract its attack plans to them. At this point, the precise involvement of returnees from Syria and foreign IS supporters in the bombings remains under investigation. The Easter weekend attacks more resemble the al-Qaeda attacks of the 2000s than they do recent attacks of IS. Like the 2000 attack of the USS Cole in Yemen, the September attacks in New York and Washington, the 2002 bombings in Bali, the 2003 truck bombs in Istanbul, the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, the 2005 tube and bus bombings in London, the Sri Lanka bombings involved multiple attackers acting in concert. With the exception of September 11, all of these also involved improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The Sri Lanka bombings exceeded all but the September 11 attacks in sophistication and deadliness, despite the fact the perpetrators were previously known only for acts of hateful vandalism. Over the past decade, al-Qaeda has been unable to carry out significant attacks outside of conflict zones. It has also become increasingly focused on “reputation management” and has tended to avoid indiscriminate mass killings, all the whilst growing its global network of affiliates. The emergence of IS saw the tempo and scale of terrorist attacks transformed. Most attacks took place in conflict zones (Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, southern Philippines). A number of significant attacks were conducted well beyond the battlefield. There were at least four such attacks in 2014, 16 in 2015, 22 in 2016, 18 in 2017, and 10 in 2018. The vast majority of these attacks were conducted by lone actors. Why was it that, outside of conflict zones, not just Al-Qaeda but even IS at the height of its powers focused largely on lone-actor attacks? It is probably not for want of trying. The reason is that most larger, more ambitious plots were tripped-up by intelligence intercepts. This is especially the case in stable democracies, including our neighbours Indonesia and Malaysia. Why Sri Lanka? The other big question is how one of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever was able to be executed in Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka was a soft target. Having successfully defeated the Tamil Tiger rebel group a decade ago through military might, Sri Lanka has become complacent. It has not seen a pressing need to develop police and non-military intelligence capacity to counter terrorism. At the same time, it has struggled with good governance and political stability. Just six months ago, it faced a major constitutional crisis when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked his deputy, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and attempted to replace him with the former prime minister and president Mahinda Rajapaksa. The attempt failed, but in the stand-off that ensued, Wickremesinghe, and ministers loyal to him, were excluded from intelligence briefings. In particular, they say that they were left unaware of the multiple warnings issued by the Indian intelligence service, RAW, to the authorities in Colombo about the extremist figures who played a key role in the Easter attacks. Thus, despite several discoveries earlier this year of large amounts of explosives stored in remote rural locations on the island, and multiple warnings from the Indians, including final alerts just hours before Sunday’s attacks, the government and security community were left distracted and caught off-guard. Between “fighting the last war” and fighting each other, they deluded themselves that there was no imminent terrorist threat. What other countries are vulnerable? If the massive attacks in Sri Lanka over Easter serve to remind us that IS is very far from being a spent force, the question is where this energetic and well-resourced network will strike next. For all that it achieved in Sri Lanka, IS is unlikely to be able to build an enduring presence there. So long as the Sri Lankan government and people emerge from this trauma with renewed commitment to unity – and with elections at the end of the year, this is far from certain – the “perfect storm” conditions exploited by IS are unlikely to be repeated. So where else is IS likely to find opportunity? India and Bangladesh continue to present opportunities, as does much of Central Asia. In our region, it is Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines that we should be most worried about. Malaysia has emerged stronger and more stable from its swing-back to democracy but continues to be worryingly in denial about the extent to which it is vulnerable to terrorist attacks, downplaying the very good work done over many years by the Special Branch of the Royal National Malaysian Police. Thailand and the Philippines remain less politically stable, and rather more brittle than they care too acknowledge. And both tend to delude themselves into thinking that the problems of their southern extremes will never manifest in a terror attack in Bangkok or Manila, respectively. The people of Sri Lanka have paid far too high price for the lessons of the Easter weekend attacks to be ignored or forgotten. (Greg Barton is Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University) (This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

Sri Lanka attacks serve as a reminder that Islamic State is very far from being a spent force

Now Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena says that security officials did not share the intelligence on Easter attacks with him. So who is in charge of Sri Lanka? Why are politicians squabbling with each other when a country is in crisis? Palki raises some crucial questions.

Gravitas: Country is in crisis, but Sri Lanka's politicians engage in a bitter blame game

Palki explains why SL's attempt to project the Easter terror attacks as a retaliation for Christchurch Church attacks is on a weak footing. Watch this video to know more.

Gravitas: How credible is Lanka's theory linking Easter attacks to Christchurch attacks

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