Suicide Bomber spent Rs. 45mn on extremist activities

 Insaf Ahamed, the suicide bomber who blew himself up at the Cinnamon Grand hotel, had spent nearly Rs.45 million within the first four months of 2019 for National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) to conduct extremist activities in the country, CI Raveendra Wimalasiri of the CID informed the PCoI probing into the Easter Attacks yesterday.

He informed the Commission that Insaf Ahamed owned several companies and always maintained a record on what purpose he was using funds. “However, in the first four months of 2019 he had used Rs. 45 million but there was no record of the purpose. During investigations it was revealed that money had been used to conduct extremist activities within the country,” he informed the Commission.

During the testimony, the Commission had played voice recordings of Insaf Ahamed, which had been recorded on the day before the Easter attacks. According to a recording Insaf had booked air tickets to Malaysia for his family to escape the country after the attacks. In the recording, he advises his wife to move to Malaysia, if she feels that it was a safe place to live with the children. In a pen drive, Insaf had stored four voice recordings pertaining to his decision to convert as a Jihadist and commit suicide, how his wife was to manage his business and properties after his death and a message to his staff and workers. In the voice record where he explains his decision to commit suicide, he asks his family and the country to forgive him after Easter attacks.

“If I regret this path, it will be a serious matter for the whole Muslim community,” Insaf says in his final voice recording. He also said that by revealing the names of persons who vandalized Buddha statues in Mawanella, people attached to The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama had shown their hypocrisy.

“The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama is taking harsh action against real Muslims and if we don’t like some parts of Islam it is a dangerous situation,” he mentioned in the recording. Meanwhile, CI Raveendra Wimalasiri informed the Commission that on April 17, 2019, Insaf had informed his family that he was flying to Zambia for a business conference. Subsequently his family had dropped him at the airport and proceeded to Mannar.

However after sometime Insaf had taken a taxi from the airport and gone back to his house at Mahawila Gardens, in Dematagoda,” CI Wimalasiri informed the Commission. The witness said that Insaf had sent several what’s app messages to his wife mentioning that he was in Zambia.

He also said that during the investigation, Insaf's wife had revealed that her sister-in-law, Fathima Jiffry, who blew herself at the Mahawila gardens residence in Dematagoda, was the main reason for the two brothers Insaf and Ilham to convert as Islamic extremists in the country. (Yoshitha Perera)