Fmr. SIS Chief tells PCoI, Zahran was not master-mind of April 2019 Attacks

Testifying to the Presidential Commission probing the 2019 April Attacks, former State Intelligence Service Director Nilantha Jayawardena said Zaharan Hashim who led the group that carried out the bombings was not the mastermind of the carnage.

Instead, he identified a person known as Nawfer Moulavi who was in Qatar for 19 years and had maintained international links as the mastermind behind the bombings.

Nawfer Moulavi is currently under the custody of authorities.

The former SIS Director also told the commission he had informed the then Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis regarding the threat of a terrorist attack, 10 months before the incident had taken place.

Upon being questioned by the commission, he conceded sharing of intelligence information between local units had, however, not taken place in a proper manner during his term in office.

The witness also said in 2018 he had informed the then law and order minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara about the need for a law to regulate the construction of all religious places of worship.

He said the establishment of ministries for each religion under the previous government allowed subject ministers to promote the construction of more places of worship relating to their faiths without following a proper procedure.

On the same lines, the witness told the commission foreign funding was received for the construction of certain mosques, and these transactions had not taken place through official bank accounts.