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| Edited By: DNA |Source: DNA |Updated: Apr 23, 2019, 07:00 AM IST
It is hard not to empathise with the people of sunny Sri Lankan isles. A peace loving country, which has slowly started to come out of a debilitating two--and-a-half decade conflict with Tamil extremists that claimed thousands of lives, now finds itself at the receiving end of one of the worst terrorist outrages in recent times.
Security experts have always held that South Asia, given its vast Muslim population, could be a potential breeding ground for Islamic State Of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fanatics, with Pakistan, India and Bangladesh as its most likely theatres.
Yet, no one ever thought about Sri Lanka. And it is here that the first major attack by ISIS in South Asia has come. The government has confirmed that Sunday’s attacks on three churches and three hotels were carried out by suicide bombers.
The death toll could touch the 300 mark or even higher. In the event of such an outrage, there is bound to be finger pointing, including talk of prior intelligence warning about such an attack, but as is known by the Indian experience, such warnings are scarcely actionable. Be that as it may, that a country with little under 10 per cent Muslim population, should target churches on an Easter Sunday, does not make sense.
While the island has been plagued by the Sinhala-Tamil conflict over the decades, security agencies are still trying to figure out what could have provoked such an attack, given that Sri Lanka has no past history of violence between the Christian and Muslim communities, both who number roughly the same in the country.
Some intelligence agencies in Sri Lanka, tracking the aftermath of the explosions, have quoted ISIS fanatics as celebrating the killings, calling them a revenge for the Christchurch shoot out in New Zealand last month. Such a logic, outrageous, twisted and dangerous, needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
Why should the ISIS, which is about to be wiped out in its place of origin in the Arab world, rear its head in far away South Asia, is something that experts will have to tackle. It is precisely this logic that makes IS a highly dangerous customer and it is here that India needs to be on its guard.
Indian security agencies would undoubtedly be confabulating with their counterparts in Sri Lanka, with whom they have good ties, to work on important leads. With the country in election mode, it is important that security agencies here keep their antennas up to prevent any untoward occurrence, which can have serious consequences.
The earliest evidence of ISIS developing roots in the Indian sub-continent came in 2016 when 28 people — including six terrorists — were killed in a case of hostage taking at an upscale restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Despite the fury, the Bangladesh government stoutly denied the involvement of any ISIS elements in the crime.
Going down three years, they have probably been proved right. The ISIS bogey has turned out to be incorrect in the case of Bangladesh. It would be a sound idea even for the Sri Lankan government to conduct a thorough enquiry into the blasts before jumping to any conclusion.
