06/05/2019
The role of support networks in Jihadist terrorism. The case of the Eastern Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka.
Support networks stimulate cooperation, collaboration, and can function as fora for establishing connections. They can be a complex of individual citizens, Mosques, or cultural organizations infiltrated by terrorist agents or sympathizers.
The first intelligence reports referred to a not so known organization called National Thowheeth Jamaat, with variations as Towheed Jamath, Tawheed Jamath, Nations Thawahid Jaman and National Thowfeek Jamaath. In any case, Thowheet stands for oneness of god and Jamaat for brotherhood. This organization took part in the incitements and clashes of religious nature mentioned previously, vandalizing Buddhist statues in 2016. It has been accused of promoting hatred, fear and division, indoctrinating children and provoking the Buddhist majority. The leader and secretary of the group, Abdul Razik, had been detained in 2016 for comments about other religions and in November was arrested for inciting religious disharmony. Another organization accused of having taken part in the attacks is the Jammiyathul Millathy Ibrahim, but there is even less information about it.
The NTJ grew in Kattankudy, a town near the city of Batticaloa, in the Eastern Province, and where Salafism and Wahhabism has prospered thanks to funding by Persian Gulf groups over the last years. Kattankudy is also the place of origin of the leader of the terrorists. Several chapters with the same name have been formed in other countries with Sri Lankan communities. However, the NTJ’s origins can be traced back to South India, in the state of Tamil Nadu in the early 2000s, according to Saroj Kumar Rath, a terrorism expert at the University of Delhi. Other sources also confirm this information. Another expert, Iromi Dharmawardhane, at the Institute of South Asian Studies in the National University of Singapore, says that an organization of similar extremist character operated there under the name of Tamil Nadu Thawheed Jamaath and probably influenced the NTJ. It is also believed that the NTJ splintered from the organization Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath (SLTJ) in 2016.
The NTJ is said to have between 100 and 150 members, while the other group mentioned, the Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim has been recruiting for the Islamic State since 2015 and has from 150 to 200 members.
Image source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/sri-lanka-dozens-killed-and-injured-in-easter-bombings-of-churches-hotels/
