Radical cleric Hashim linked to blasts

Leader of the NTJ was seen in a video taking a pledge of allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Relatives carry the coffin of a bomb blast victim for a burial ceremony at a cemetery in Colombo on April 24, 2019, three days after a series of suicide attacks targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka.

For years, Sri Lanka’s Muslim community warned authorities about a firebrand cleric. Now it seems Zahran Hashim may have played a key role in one of the worst attacks in the country’s history.

A video released by the Islamic State group after it claimed responsibility for bombs that killed 359 people, appears to prominently feature Hashim.

The round-faced cleric is the only one of the eight figures whose face is uncovered. Dressed in a black tunic and headscarf, and carrying a rifle, Hashim is seen in the IS video leading seven people in a pledge of allegiance to the group’s chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

The other seven all wear the same black tunics but their faces are obscured by black-and-white chequered scarves.

Sri Lanka’s government has accused Hashim indirectly, saying the Islamist group he was believed to lead — the National Thowheeth Jamaath — carried out the attacks. Hashim was identified, albeit with his name misspelled as Hashmi, by police as heading NTJ.

‘A loner’

Hashim was a virtual unknown before the onslaught. He had attracted several thousand followers on social media sites, including YouTube and Facebook, where he posted incendiary sermons.

Hilmy Ahamed, vice-president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, said he had gone to local authorities with concerns about Hashim three years ago. “This person was a loner and he had radicalised young people in the guise of conducting Quran classes,” he said. “But nobody thought these people were capable of carrying out an attack of such magnitude.”

Ahamed said Hashim, who has also gone by the names Mohamed Zahran and Moulavi Hashim, was around 40 years old and from the east coast region of Batticaloa.

“Zahran belonged to an average Muslim middle-class family. He was a drop-out,” said Ahamed, adding that the cleric had studied at an Islamic college in Kattankudy, a Muslim-majority city in eastern Sri Lanka.

He was considered a menace by the local Muslim community and caused trouble at Kattankudy’s Thowheeth mosque.

Local media said Hashim formed the NTJ in Kattankudy in 2014. There was still confusion Wednesday about whether that group, or a splinter organisation, carried out the Easter attack.

“There has been a group that has split from the main body,” of the NTJ, Deputy Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said. “We believe that the leader of this group has also committed suicide in one of the attacks,” he added, refusing to confirm if he was referring to Hashim or someone else.