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Muslim community has no links with Easter carnage: Cardinal
Colombo, April 25
Sri Lanka's Muslim community should not be blamed for the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that authorities have blamed on a local Muslim group, the Archbishop of Colombo said on Thursday.
Malcolm Cardinal Ranjit said that Muslim politicians and others from the community had offered their condolences and said they had nothing to do with the Sunday horror that killed 359 people and injured hundreds.
"Hence, I am of the opinion that the Muslim community had absolutely nothing to do with these attacks," the Daily Mirror newspaper quoted him as saying.
But the Archbishop said he could not fathom why the Catholic community was subjected to such atrocities.
"I have been personally open and friendly towards the Muslim community as we share a common ancestor in Abraham," Cardinal Ranjith said.
"However, the reason why they chose us would emerge in the future."
He said that members of the Muslim community had met him at Inter-Religious Council meetings where they expressed their condolences and insisted they had no connection with what transpired on Easter Sunday.
Addressing the media, he said the government should have told him "if they knew something was about to take place".
In such an event, he said the community would have cancelled all the masses and services during the Holy Week.
He was referring to published reports that Sri Lanka had been warned by intelligence agencies about possible terror attacks during Easter but the warnings were ignored.
"I have also told my Catholic population not to raise their hand against anyone because that's what we Christians have to follow," the Cardinal added.
He said he had stopped all festivals taking place in churches until the situation was brought back to normal.
Sister of Sri Lanka mastermind deplores bloodbath
The sister of a man believed to the mastermind behind the Easter Sunday carnage in Sri Lanka is furious with her brother for causing so much pain and suffering to others.
Mohammad Hashim Madaniya has found out that her brother, Zahran Hashim, is the alleged ringleader of a group of suicide bombers who attacked churches and hotels on Sunday, killing more than 350 people, media reports say.
The young mother of two, who lives in the eastern town of Kattankudy, says she is horrified by what he has done and fears what could happen next, the BBC reported.
The police have interviewed her but she is not being treated as a suspect.
It's still not clear if Hashim, who allegedly led a group of bombers, is alive or dead.
Hashim, said to be around 40 years, was the eldest of five siblings. The sister insists she has had no contact with her brother since 2017, when he went underground after police tried to arrest him over violence between two Muslim groups.
Since Sunday's bloodbath, a video has emerged in which a man believed to be Zahran Hashim appears pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
"I came to know about his activities only through the media. I never thought, even for a moment, that he would do such a thing," says Madaniya.
"I strongly deplore what he has done. Even if he is my brother, I cannot accept this. I don't care about him any more."
According to the Daily Mirror, her brother was a radical Islamist preacher and came to notice some years ago after he posted several videos on YouTube and other social media platforms denouncing non-believers.
The videos triggered concern among other Muslims, some of whom took up the matter with Sri Lankan authorities but were ignored.
Media reports say that the man disappeared with other members of his family just before the Easter Sunday attacks. It is not clear if he is in hiding or has left Sri Lanka.
Kattankudy is located close to Batticaloa town where the Zion Church was one of the three churches -- one each in Colombo and Negombo -- was bombed on Easter Sunday. At least 28 people were killed in Batticaloa.
