Unanswered Questions Surround Fate of 'Sarah Jasmine'

COLOMBO (News 1st); On April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday, the suicide bombings that killed 278 people and left nearly 500 others disabled continue to reveal grave and troubling facts.

Serious questions have now emerged regarding attempts to conceal the true circumstances surrounding Pulastini, also known as Sarah Jasmine, a member of the group that carried out the Easter Sunday attacks.

These revelations are based strictly on information reported to court as part of the extensive investigations currently being conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Pulastini, also known as Sarah Jasmine, was the wife of Mohamed Hasthun, the suicide bomber who detonated explosives at St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya.

Investigations have revealed that Sarah actively contributed to the terrorist operation.

She is considered a crucial witness with knowledge of the entire process connected to this brutal act of terrorism.

However, for seven years, a cloud of uncertainty has surrounded one critical question:

Is Sarah Jasmine alive, or is she dead?

As this long-standing mystery slowly begins to unravel, several significant facts have now come to light.

Following the Easter Sunday attacks, security forces raided Zahran Hashim’s house in Sainthamaruthu, Ampara, on April 26, 2019.

During the raid, Zahran Hashim’s brother, Mohamed Rilwan, detonated an explosive device.

It was later announced that 17 people, including women and children, were killed at that location.

At that moment, key questions arose:

Was Sarah present at the scene?

If so, did she die?

Or did she manage to escape?

DNA tests conducted on two separate occasions after the attack failed to conclusively confirm that Sarah Jasmine was among the deceased.

On April 27, 2022, exactly three years later, bodies buried in Sainthamaruthu were exhumed once again for further DNA testing.

Authorities later stated that two bone fragments found inside a bag containing unidentified remains were identified, through DNA analysis, as belonging to a daughter of Sarah Jasmine’s mother.

However, at that time, officials did not categorically state that the remains were definitively Sarah Jasmine’s.

Subsequently, in March 2023, investigators who had handled the case at the time issued a formal statement.

That statement said that a report issued by the Government Analyst’s Department confirmed that Sarah Jasmine was among those who died in the April 26, 2019, Sainthamaruthu incident.

It stated that DNA samples taken from bone fragments recovered from the crime scene matched DNA obtained from Sarah Jasmine’s mother, confirming a biological parent-child relationship.

Quoting the Government Analyst’s report, the CID stated at the time that the probability of the match was 99.9999 percent.

However, the CID later informed court, following the reopening of the investigation in 2025, that the DNA test conducted in 2022 was suspicious.

During these renewed investigations, a Senior Inspector from the Special Task Force testified that after the explosions and shootings in Sainthamaruthu, the entire area fell completely silent.

He further stated that the sound of a motorcycle being started and driven away was clearly audible at that moment.

Another senior police officer also testified that he heard the sound of the same motorcycle.

Although information had been received indicating that Zaharan’s family members arrived at the Sainthamaruthu house using a van and two motorcycles, the officer stated that only one motorcycle was present at the scene at the time of the explosion.

The then-Chief Inspector of the Badulla Scene Of Crime Officers Unit stated that there had not been an explosion of sufficient intensity inside the Sainthamaruthu house to completely vaporize Sarah Jasmine’s body.

Further testimony from an intelligence officer of the Police Special Branch revealed that after the Sainthamaruthu explosion, Sarah Jasmine had traveled to Kalmunai, visited a relative’s house in Vellaveli, and later traveled by sea from Mankadu to Mannar.

The same intelligence officer stated that a man named Joshua, who maintained a close relationship with Sarah, had attempted to call her after the explosion.

Although her phone initially appeared disconnected, Sarah later returned a call to Joshua from her own phone.