•  I urged him to arrest this man

By Yohan Perera   

All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama President Sheik M.I.M. Rizwi Mufti said yesterday in January this year he gave former defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando all the details about the National Thowheed Jama’at leader Mohamed Zahran who led Easter Sunday’s terror attack.   

He said he urged him to arrest this man.  

Speaking at the meeting of religious and political leaders in the parliamentary complex, the Mufti said he had informed the responsible people in the present regime on the presence of IS terrorists in Sri Lanka and details on its cadres. “I asked them to arrest them. But, they told me that they will take them in for rehabilitation but nothing was done” the Mufti said. “ I am the first to reveal the presence of IS terrorists in Sri Lanka way back in 2014.”   

He said the terror group had nothing to do with Islam . “One must not use the term Islamic terrorists as Islamism has nothing to do with a terror group,” he said.