NTJ’s likely new leader in CID custody

• CID report submitted to Parliament reveals details of attacks
• Among those in custody is man who was to succeed Zaharan as NTJ’s leader
• Bookings at three hotels attacked made under one name

By Chandani Kirinde

A Crime Investigation Department (CID) report into the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks submitted to Parliament this week reveals that among those in Police custody in this connection is a man who is believed to have been appointed to succeed as the leader of the ‘National Thawheed Jamath’ (NTJ), the group behind the   attacks.

The report identifies the man as Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Naufer who had been named to replace Mohamed Zaharan, the NTJ’s self-appointed leader. Zaharan was one of the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the Table One Restaurant located on Level Three of the Shangri La Hotel killing 32 persons including 24 foreigners. The report says the NTJ is believed to be a splinter group of the ‘Jemeth -e-Islam’.

The report by the CID which details each of the nine bombs attacks that took place on 21 April was tabled in Parliament by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday while making a statement on the Easter Sunday attacks and the security situation in the country.

The report reveals that seven of the nine suicide bomb attacks were carried out between 8.45 a.m. to 9.05 a.m. on 21 April while the explosion at Tropical Inn, Dehiwala took place at 1.30 p.m. followed by the explosion at Dematagoda at 2.25 p.m.

The first suicide explosion had taken place at St. Anthony’s Church, Kochchikade at 8.45 a.m. in which 31 persons were killed and a large number were injured.

22-year-old Alwudeen Ahamed Muaath of Bloemendhal Road, Colombo-13 who carried out this take had arrived at the scene of the attack in a white van and got off about 75 m from there before walking into the church and blowing himself up.

Police discovered the booby-trapped white van the next day following which the Special Task Force (STF) carried out a controlled explosion.

The explosion at the St. Sebastian’s Church at Katuwapitiya and the Kingsbury Hotel had taken place around the same time at about 8.47 a.m.

The attack on St. Sebastian ‘s Church was carried out by 25-year-old Mohammadu Hasthun of Valachcheni which left 112 persons dead and over 175 injured making it the single deadliest of the Easter day attacks.

The man responsible for the Kingsbury Hotel attack identified as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed Mubarak, a 32-year-old resident of Bandaranayke Mawatha, Colombo-12 had checked into the hotel the previous night and the following morning had come down to the lobby area and blown himself up. Nine persons died and three were injured in this attack.

The two suicide attacks at the Shangri-La Hotel were carried out within a minute of each other between 8.54 a.m.-8.55 a.m., the CID report revealed.

The two bombers were identified as Mohamed Ibrahim, a 33-year-old resident of Mahavila Park, Colombo-13 and NTJ leader Jahran Mohamed Cassim (Mohamed Cassim Mohamed Zaharan) of Mosque Road, Kattankudy.

The two men had checked into the hotel the previous night and were seen walking round the Table One Restaurant which is located on Level Three of the Hotel on the day of the attack. The CID which scrutinised CCTV footage said in the report that Ibrahim is then seen taking the escalator to Level Two following which Zaharan blows himself up causing pandemonium at the Restaurant. The second bomber then comes up to the third floor and blows himself up in the place where the shocked guests had gathered to escape.

The attack at the Taprobane Restaurant at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel which killed 20 persons including 15 foreigners was carried out by a 36-year-old man identified as Mohamed Abrahim Inshaf Ahamed of Mahavila Road, Colombo-9. 

He too had booked into the hotel the previous night and left the hotel that night and returned around 7 a.m. the following morning. He had left his room around 9 a.m. and had come down to the restaurant and blown himself up. He has been identified as the brother of the suicide bomber who was involved in the attack at Shangri La Hotel.

The attack on the Zion Church at Central Road, Batticaloa was carried out by Mohamed Nazar Mohamed Azath of Kattankudy. He had triggered an explosion close to the entrance of the church around 9.05 a.m. killing 28 person and injuring 81 others. The suicide bomber who blew himself up at Tropical Inn, Dehiwala was identified as Abul Latif Jameer Mohomed, a 27-year-old resident of Welamboda. The man had booked into a room at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo on 20 April and had left the hotel that night and returned the next morning around 7 a.m. He had come down to one of the hotel’s restaurants around 8.30 a.m. carrying a backpack and a travelling bag and another small backpack.

The CID report says the man appears to have tried unsuccessfully to trigger an attack and having failed had left the hotel around 8.45 a.m. and headed to the Tropical Inn Hotel at Dehiwala. Soon after he had left the hotel leaving behind his bags, he was next seen in the mosque located about 2 km away from the Inn. He had returned to the hotel around 1.15 p.m. and an explosion had taken place soon afterwards in which two other persons were also killed.

The final bomb explosion that took place was at Mahavila Place, Dematagoda in which three police officers were killed.

The report says that soon after the attacks took place, CID officers’ investigation the attacks had identified one of the Shangri-La Hotel bombers as Mohamed Ibrahim and traced him to the Mahavila Place address. A CID team headed by an ASP was dispatched to conduct a search.  Meanwhile on a tip off about the possible hideout of the terrorists, a team of three police officers headed by a Sub Inspector attached to the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) too was directed to the same location. The two teams had arrived at about the same time, around 2.15 p.m. and while the CID officers were making inquiries from the owner of the house, namely Yusuf Mohamed Ibrahim, the officers of the CCD had climbed to the first floor and begun a search.

A woman, later identified as Jeffery Fatima, wife of one of the Shangri-La Hotel bombers, had blown herself up killing the policemen as well as three children.  

The report says the CID which has deployed eight teams to investigate the attacks had taken into custody 56 persons by last Tuesday including Naufer who was to take over as the NTJ’s new leader. They are under interrogation by the CID.