Zaharan Hashim, who is said to be the mastermind behind the Easter Sunday serial blasts in Sri Lanka, was ‘known for his extremist views’, and wanted the Sharia laws to be implemented in the country, The Indian Express reported.
Hashim, the 38-year-old founder of National Towheeth Jamaath – which the Sri Lankan government holds responsible for the attacks – was also one of the two suicide bombers who detonated themselves at a Colombo hotel.
Hashim hails from Batticaloa in Kattankudy – the very place where the LTTE attacked two mosques, killing nearly 150 people in 1990. The recent explosion of a motorcycle in Kattankudy is being re-investigated, the report said.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Kattankudy resident Abdul Latheef Mohammed Sabeel said:
“He could talk very well. He used to say that we must live like how it has been said in the Koran, that you must cut off a person’s hand for stealing, and that stoning was the punishment for adultery. He wanted to bring in the Sharia. But we used to argue that this is not Saudi Arabia, that we are a small minority in a Buddhist country and must live within the Constitution.”
Hashim is reportedly described as an “aggressive loudmouth” in the area, who the residents realised “had recently crossed over to violent radicalism.”
“He returned with an Arabic certificate and started preaching. Some people got attracted to him because he was a good speaker, and he gathered about 300 followers,” Sabeel told The Indian Express, adding that Sabeel was expelled from a tableeghi school in Kattankudy in 2007 for reportedly arguing with teachers.
In December 2018, Hahim was reportedly involved in defacing of Buddha statues in central Sri Lanka last December. According to The Indian Express, Hashim came on the police radar when police was looking for him in connection with the vandalism.
Police search led to an 80-acre coconut farm in Puttalam where explosives, detonators and radical literature was discovered, the newspaper report said.
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