Owl Opinions
Easter Attacks – Thoughts on 24th April 2019
Apr 24, 2019
We have in effect been under a sort of siege since the 21st of April 2019. With the shock, horror and fear the fuelling of great panic, anger, racism and revenge has been great.
ISIS is supposed to have claimed responsibility – after 2 days of silence. Yet some of these factors just don’t add up and it’s been bugging me for a while.
- The modus operandi hinted at a very sophisticated planning and execution strategy that couldn’t have been carried out by amateurs. Certainly a group responsible for defacing Buddha statues has in less than a year moved on to execute a terrorist attack of massive proportions equivalent to an international scale one. That is a massive leap of faith and capability as it were. This needed months or years of planning. So retaliation for Christchurch just doesn’t go with that claim either.
- The lack of urgency and agency on part of the government is suspicious to a level of ridiculousness. It’s absurd how easily they are handling a so called ‘international threat’. Laughing on the day of the event. Finger pointing as to who is to blame and a general ‘not me, you’ kind of ball passing which is normal for SL politics. But not under international duress. Compare these reactions to any wartime bomb. No one laughed.
- Then there is the target group factor. Christians are the traditional enemies of the Muslims. But in SL the enemy factions have been between the extremist Buddhists and the Muslims. Kandy last year was just the tip of the iceberg in a series of riots and general disarray. Yes there are extremist Islamic elements but one can’t equate all Muslims to that. Christians represent a small but impactful group. We are the smallest religious denomination in SL but worldwide we have some clout. So locally it won’t upset too many people but internationally will give enough coverage. Also we aren’t known for being extreme though there are some radical elements. Nowhere on the level of the KKK though – not yet. If the attacks were against temples there would be World War III by now. Without a doubt.
- The men in Burka. This is fucking weird. You are a terrorist group apparently affiliated to ISIS. You carried out the attacks dressed as ordinary men. Yet when they come to arrest your team – there’s a guy dressed in a Burka. Really? Wtf? Why bother? They were arresting men and women. Not just men. Your burka in effect did nothing to protect you. Militant martyrs don’t hide behind burkas. Why would you? But it did instil the fear of terrorists in disguise in a non Islamic country. Now ‘ban the Burka’ is the tag line and propagated by some Muslims as well.
- The countless explosives found around this country. That just doesn’t gel with an international group who executed a coordinated suicide attack which is the largest in South Asia. They came, did the job and got lost. Oh but they left like a load of stuff behind randomly coz they a.) forget to take them b.) couldn’t detonate them c.) just randomly kept them lying around. All this has done is continue to instil fear in people and continue the threat of terrorism.
- The ISIS claim. Sure they are known for disruption, have apparently claimed SL as their own territory (what do we have to offer them? Wilpattu?) and they executed this strategic attack but they waited for 2 days till Ruwan Wijewardene said they are to blame for them to take credit. ISIS is apparently known for taking credit for stuff they didn’t do. This would’ve been a bonus on a platter. Plus that video looks a poorly edited job to me. I can get it re-created in a day if required. Superimposing the face of a person into a cleric’s kit is no big deal.
- The NTJ leader. Yes a radical preaching radicalism. Leader of this terror group who executed the attacks in SL. And he blows himself up? What leader of a terrorist organisation blows himself up? Only if caught. Who would lead after him? Or was he the actual leader? Say it’s ISIS. Who in ISIS is it? No evidence given, no proof.
What we have now is –
– 359 dead and over 500 in hospital*
– suspicious bombs and explosives being discovered everywhere
– A state of absolute fear and panic in Sri Lanka
– Hate for Muslims raging on
– Call for eradication of radicals and terrorists
– Calls for banning the Burka
– Calls for the President and PM and entire Government to resign
– A blame and shame game played out by politicians
– No proper leadership and no proper direction
Who stands to benefit from this?
- Overall who stands to gain from this? We have a terror element in our country that is not the LTTE. But it’s terrorists nevertheless. Our President and PM have proven themselves to be inept leaders and apparently knew about the threat of the attacks and did nothing. The forces claim they had no knowledge. The Defence Minster and secretary claim they didn’t think it would be this bad (poor babies). So clearly the leadership failed. The government failed. So who can help poor SL now at the mercy of international terrorists? Do we have anyone with a track record of defeating terrorists? Ah but we do, don’t we? A son of the soil. Who is needed to rein in the terrorists and bring law and order to the country (and clean roads for Colombo to traipse on). We need a hero. And voila we have one.
*This is before the death toll was revised to 200+ due to a counting error at the hospital.
Image – courtesy Anadolu Agency / Getty Images featured on BBC
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