Azad Moulana offers to testify in Easter attacks probe

Whistleblower Azad Moulana has offered to testify before an international probe into the Easter Sunday attacks.

Issuing a statement in Geneva, Moulana said that he will only bear witness before an
international independent investigation.

In the statement Moulana, the former spokesperson of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP) said that the documentary “Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings”, which was broadcast on 5 September by the British Channel 4 has created considerable interest in Sri Lanka.

“Various articles and editorials have been written, and while the documentary has generated some support for an international independent investigation, a lot of rumours and fake news have been published and even my wife and children have been slandered and their pictures have been published on social media,” he said.

Moulana said that while he worked for Shivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a Member of Parliament, State Minister of Rural Road Development, former Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and leader of the political party Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, which
had earlier been a militant group, he was not a fighter.

“Indeed, I have never been trained to use arms. Because of my position I had access to important and secret information related to the Easter Sunday suicide attacks as well as many political killings that took place during the period of the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa,” he added.

Full statement:

The documentary “Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings”, which was broadcast on 5 September by the British Channel 4 has created considerable interest in Sri Lanka. Various articles and editorials have been written, and while the documentary has generated some support for an international independent investigation, a lot of rumours and fake news have been published and even my wife and children have been slandered and their pictures have been published on social media.

I would therefore like to make the following statement.

From 2006 to February 2022 I have worked for Shivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a Member of Parliament, State Minister of Rural Road Development, former Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and leader of the political party Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), which had earlier been a militant group. I was the Propaganda Secretary as well as the spokesperson of the TMVP. I was not a fighter. Indeed, I have never been trained to use arms. Because of my position I had access to important and secret information related to the Easter Sunday suicide

attacks as well as many political killings that took place during the period of the government of

Mahinda Rajapaksa.

 

On 21 April 2019 on Easter Sunday a terror attack killed 269 persons including 45 children, 40

foreigners and injured more than 500 others. Only when the media revealed the identity of the

suicide bombers after the attack did I realize that I had strong evidence about the masterminds and

other perpetrators and also the motivation for this terror attack. I have in no way been involved in

preparing or carrying out these terrible and devastating attacks.

 

Following the defeat of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government in 2015, Pillayan was arrested and

imprisoned in the Batticaloa prison under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in connection with

the murder of former Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament Joseph Pararajasingham, who

was shot dead on Christmas Day 2005 at the St. Mary’s Cathedral, Batticaloa. As a secretary to

Pillayan, the court had granted me permission, along with his lawyers, to meet Pillayan to discuss

legal matters. During a visit in September 2017 Pillayan told me that some Muslim prisoners from

Kattankudy were with him in the same cell. A father, his son and six others had been remanded for

extremist activities and attacks on another Muslim group in Kattankudy. They were from an

organisation called National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). On Pillayan’s request I met Sainy Moulavi.

Later, Pillayan asked me to contact the Military Intelligence (MI) to arrange funds for these

prisoners’ relatives to pay their bail. They were released on 24th October 2017.

 

At the end of January 2018, Pillayan told me to arrange a secret meeting between Suresh Salley,

who was then a brigadier, and Sainy Moulavi’s group. Pillayan said that Suresh Salley would

inform me about the meeting place and time. A few days later Suresh Salley contacted me and

asked me to request Sainy Moulavi to come to the Puttalam Vanaththavillu area. The next day I

traveled with an MI officer from Colombo to Puttalam, Sainy Moulavi’s group came from

Kurunegala. Pillayan advised us not to use my own vehicle or driver for this meeting and said that

the transport would be facilitated by the MI. The meeting took place in early February 2018 at a

large coconut farm of 50 to 60 acres, located outside of Puttalam. Suresh Salley arrived in a grey

colour Toyota car with a driver. Sainy Moulavi arrived 30 minutes later with a group of six persons

in a white van. Sainy Moulavi introduced his elder brother Moulavi Zaharan as the leader of the

group.

The meeting lasted for more than two hours. I did not participate in the meeting but waited outside.

After the meeting I traveled to Batticaloa and on the next day updated Pillayan about the meeting.

Pillayan said that Suresh Salley had a big plan and a deal with Zahran’s group like they the one

with TMVP. He told me to keep the information about this meeting secret and to assist if they asked

for any help. Besides the meeting with Sainy Moulavi in prison in September 2017 I met Zahran

and his group only one time in February 2018 during the meeting with Suresh Sally. Apart from this

I had no connection or relationship with them. I was not aware of their terrorist intent or plan until

after the terror attack.

 

On Easter Sunday, 21st April 2019, Suresh Salley contacted me at around 7 am and told me to go

immediately to the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo, to pick up a person who was waiting there and

take the person’s phone. I told him that I was currently in Batticaloa and not in Colombo. About an

hour after this conversation simultaneous terrorist attacks took place across the country.

Immediately after the attacks Pillayan sent a message through a prison guard and asked me to

meet him urgently. When I saw him in prison at about 11 am on Easter Sunday he told me that the

mastermind behind the Easter attack was Suresh Salley and that he had assumed that an attack

like this would happen. He asked me to call Sainy Moulavi to find out, there was, however, no

response. It was only because of media reports in the evening that I realized that the participants

in the meeting that I had organized on the request of Pillayan were indeed suicide bombers

involved in the Easter attack. Through the President’s investigation commission and the inquiries of

the CID I also learned that the person whom Suresh Sally had wanted me to meet was Jameel, the

bomber who had been tasked to carry out a suicide attack at the Taj Samudra Hotel but then, in a

last-minute change of plans, left the Taj and later exploded himself in a small hotel in Dehiwela.

Pillayan and the TMVP supported Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the last presidential election. After

Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president, Suresh Salley returned to Sri Lanka and got promoted as

Major General and appointed as Director of State Intelligence Service (SIS), a job he continues to

hold. The government however did not take quick action to release Pillayan as promised because

the former Attorney General refused to withdraw the charge sheet against Pillayan as there was

conclusive evidence against him. During the General Election of 5th August 2020, when he was

still in prison, Pillayan was elected Member of Parliament. After the election Pillayan asked me and

his brother to meet Suresh Salley to tell him not to forget how Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the

present government came into power and to warn him that he would have to pay a huge price if

Pillayan were not released. A few days later the new Attorney General withdrew the case against

Pillayan at the High Court of Batticaloa.

 

Besides my knowledge about the organisers of the Easter Sunday attacks, I have detailed

information about many political murders and abductions which took place between 2005 and

2015. A large number of these killings were committed by the Tripoli Platoon, a killing squad

operating undercover in the intelligence unit of the Sri Lankan Army. The unit was initially led by

Major Prabath Bulathwatte and later by Colonel Shammi Kumararatne. It was under the direct

command of Maj. Gen. Amal Karunasena, who then had been Director of MI and was later made

Army Chief of Staff. This platoon reported to Gotabaya Rajapaksa directly and received orders only

from him, when he was Secretary of Defence. This platoon and the TMVP were responsible for a

number of major political assassinations during and after the war, including the assassinations and

disappearances of journalists. They are particularly responsible for the assassinations of former

parliamentarians Joseph Pararajasingam and Nadarajah Raviraj, the assassinations of the

journalists Lasantha Wickrematunge, Sivaram and Nadesan as well as the disappearances of

Professor Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath, Vice-Chancellor of the Eastern University and the

cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda. I also have information about many other human rights violations

carried out jointly by the MI and the TMVP. Although I did not agree with what they were doing, I

could not disassociate from them as I feared for my life. Until today I fear that he Sri Lankan

authorities would abduct, imprison, or even kill me. Compounding my fears, police visited my

mother and my sister soon after the broadcast of Channel Four’s documentary, and two unknown

persons checked with my sister’s son in an attempt to discover my telephone number and my

address.

 

The President’s Commission and the Parliamentary Select Committee, which were both tasked to

investigate the Easter Sunday bomb attack, failed to reveal the truth about the mastermind and the

perpetrators of this tragedy. As mentioned in the fundamental rights petition filed in the Supreme

Court on 18 February 2022 by Shani Abeysekera, the former director of the Criminal Investigation

Department (CID), the investigation team he led had uncovered important evidence of connections

between the attackers and the Army, but were prevented by the Army from continuing their

investigation.

 

Because of my knowledge, I have been severely threatened by the Sri Lankan government’s

intelligence service. I fled to Europe seeking political asylum to save my life. As a witness to the

planning of several terrorist attacks, political assassinations and kidnappings in Sri Lanka, I am

willing to testify in investigations into these crimes. I do not believe, however, that the authorities in

Sri Lanka have an interest in revealing the truth. I will therefore only bear witness before an

international independent investigation.