Fearful town shuns strangers after suicide blasts
In a sprawling site on the border of the Polonnaruwa and Batticaloa districts, a row of multi-storied buildings are taking shape in what has come to be known as a ‘ Shariah University’.
The man behind the project in the sparsely populated village of Punanai is M.L.A.M. Hisbullah, the Gover nor of the Eastern Province. “How can we start a Sharia degree programme without obtaining the approval of the Higher Education Ministry? he asked, insisting that there are no plans to teach Sharia Law.
However, the Sunday Times has seen documents sent to the Higher Education Ministry. They indicate that five academic cadre positions were allocated for the Sharia and Islamic Studies stream.
According to britannica. com, Shariah or Islamic law is seen as the expression of God’s command to Muslims and, in application, constitutes a system of duties that are incumbent upon all Muslims by virtue of their religious belief. Shariah "represents a divinely ordained path of conduct that guides Muslims toward a practical expression of religious conviction in this world and the goal of divine favour in the world to come."
Allegations have been levelled against the non-state degree awarding institution at Punanai in the
LBatticaloa district with regard to funds from Saudi Arabia and, most importantly, the streams of study. Some claim that Sharia is to be taught under the law stream.
Leading the campaign against the university college is Prof. Channa J ay a s u m a n a of Rajarata University. He said: “We believe that the Faculty of Law and Culture is to have a department for Sharia Law. It is obvious that the main objective of the pseudo university is to promote Islamic law and Islamic banking. We demand an impartial and transparent inquiry into the university."
Dismissing the allegation, Eastern Governor M.L.A.M. Hisbullah, the founding chairman of Batticaloa Campus ( Pvt) Ltd., denied that Sharia was going to be taught at the campus. “How can we start a Sharia degree programme without obtaining the approval of the Higher Education Ministry? These are blatant lies,” he said.
Questions have also been raised as to whether the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Higher Education Ministry have granted approval for the courses of study at the university.
Former Higher Education Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told the Sunday Times that during his brief period as minister, no decision was taken on the matter.
ife in the bustling town of Sainthamaruthu, 50km south- east of Batticaloa, is virtually dead after sunset. Populated largely by Muslims, the urbanised stretch of the east coast is home to many entrepreneurs, traders and fishermen.
It was about a quarter past six as darkness fell on Sainthamaruthu on April 26.
“There was a massive noise and a bright flash of light. That was the first and the biggest explosion,” a 48-year-old resident said, vividly recalling the incident in which 15 people, including six children, were killed in a suicide bombing suspected to have been carried out by three people. A woman and a child believed to be the wife and the child of suspected suicide bomb squad leader Zahran Cassim escaped death.
The final rites for the dead adults were held this week, shorn of religious ritual, while religious rites were observed for the children who lost their lives.
A little more than a week later, the incident still remains a mystery to the local people and terror and mistrust send the lives of people plunging into darkness every night.
As April 26 dawned there was a sense of suspicion in the mind of Fathima Ameera who owned and had recently rented out the house next to the home where she, her mother and two daughters lived. A close friend said Ameera had told her on April 15 that she had rented the house through a broker to an elderly couple on April 18 for Rs. 5,000 a month and a deposit of Rs. 50,000.
Ameera was puzzled because the couple including the man in a wheelchair, had come to the house on just two occasions since April 18. On April 26, they returned.
That day, batches of people began entering the house with “large black bags” in a “white van”, according to eyewitnesses. Brand- new housing appliances were brought into the home. The people, however, never came outside.
Ameera’s mother, sensing something amiss, asked the elderly female renter why several people were moving in when the house was rented out only to two people.
Higher Education Ministry Secretary M.M.P.K. Mayadunne said that the campus had only applied for evaluation of its Information Technology stream.
However, in a statement dated April 30, 2019, the institute said it would offer degrees in Information Te chnolo g y, Manag ement, Agriculture and Education.
According to the campus' general manager, Mohamed Thahir, construction activities are expected to conclude within this year.
The statement also claimed that the institution had obtained the recognition of the Higher Education Ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) and would come under their supervision.
The Sunday Times team visited the campus this week and saw classrooms and other facilities being prepared for these streams.
Mr. Thahir claimed that so far
The elderly woman shot back that that was none of her business. She said the other people were family members and would leave the next day.
"A man then emerged from within the house and fired gunshots into the air,” said the 48-year-old man who spoke to The Sunday Times, showing us where the shooter had been standing.
He said local residents had called police to investigate but to no avail.
“We had to go to and fetch a team of army personnel who were on duty. They came and fired at the house. The people in the house did not return fire and committed suicide by blowing themselves up,” the 48-year-old said. A father of six, he did not want his name known for fear of retaliation.
The man said he heard three blasts in quick succession while he was standing right next to the house.
“An old woman cried out my name, begging me to help her out of her house which is next to the place where the explosions occurred,” he said.
Police believe 15 people in the house perished: six men and three women (including the elderly couple), and six children. Also in the house were the wife and child of Zahran Cassim, the suspected bomber of the Shangri La Hotel in Colombo in the catastrophic Easter Sunday suicide bombings. The mother and daughter survived and are now in hospital.
According to witnesses, a small white car was seen speeding away three UGC teams had visited the site. One team inspected the land and the buildings. Another team checked whether adequate learning tools were available. The third team, according to the general manager, assessed whether it could be opened for academic activities.
“The UGC officials said that the facility could not be opened now as it needed improvements. They also said the library must be completed fully," Mr. Thahir said, noting they had completed only half of the construction.
However, the UGC's Deputy Secretary C.J. Wijesinghe, who is in charge of academic affairs, refuted claims that the UGC teams had visited the facility.
“They have not sought any approval from us. We look into the affairs of only 15 state universities which come under the Universities Act. The Batticaloa Campus comes under from the vicinity of the house after the argument between the occupants and Ameera’s mother. It is as yet unknown how many people had been in the car and whether they had been in the house.
“We used to live peacefully while going about our daily work. Now, we have lost all the peace we enjoyed after the war ended and the country is in a worse situation,” the 48- year- old man who spoke to this paper said, grieving.
Residents of this area have been struck by a double whammy – first by the 2004 tsunami and now by these explosions. Padlocked gates translate the feelings of the people for anyone who visits the area.
“I was relocated here after I lost my house in the tsunami. I sell stringhoppers and manage to earn around Rs. 5,000 per day but now my earnings have been affected because most people have left the area since the bomb explosions,” a 38-year-old mother of two who also requested anonymity told The Sunday Times.
The woman was among those who fled the area in fear that night when the bombs went off. When she returned the next morning, she discovered her house was in total disarray as a result of widespread search operations following the bomb blasts.
“The security forces broke open three padlocks in my house. They even broke the locks of my cupboards. How can I pay to repair all this damage? I only manage to make a small living,” she told us sadly. the non-state category. Therefore, it would have to be handled by the Higher Education Ministry,” she said.
The complex had a huge facade and an impressive gate reflecting Moghul or West Asian architecture. The sprawling complex built on a vast expanse of Mahaweli land consists of several state-of-the art facilities, including ‘smart class rooms’. It is said the land has been obtained from the Mahaweli Authority on a lease. According to a video presentation accessible on Youtube, the complex will also include a swimming pool, a football ground and several sports and recreation facilities.
We asked Governor Hisbullah about the source of the funding.
“We have obtained a US$ 24 million soft loan from ‘Ali Al- Juffali Trust’ in Saudi Arabia. These loans have been channelled through an
Residents along the street feel unsafe despite the heavy protection in the general area.
They are concerned that only two police officers are deployed for security in their street during the day. As night falls, there are no security personnel to be seen, they said.
They want the authorities to open up and clean the area, which has been cordoned off as a crime scene, to help dispel the sense of fear among the local people and to prevent the spread of disease from the detritus in the bombed- out house – maggots feed in pools of congealed blood on the ground and fragments of flesh from the bodies that had been blasted apart can be seen on the walls and rafters.
The entire street stinks of death and explosives, reminiscent of wartime. Parents say the odour frightens the children in this densely-packed neighbourhood.
The Sunday Times was able to locate the house in Maligaikadu at which the suspected terrorists had stayed before moving to the Sainthamaruthu house, about 1.5km away, on April 26.
Fathima Banu (name changed to protect identity), 64, is a teacher who had rented out her house to this group of people but had later asked them to vacate the premises because her newly-married son wanted to move in. Her husband is under police custody, being questioned regarding the matter.
She said on April 15, a person calling himself Niyaz had reached her through a house broker in the area. The broker who had recommended Niyaz is also now under police custody.
Niyaz had arranged to pay Rs. 5,000 a month in rent for the house and had wanted to move in on April 19 but that was not possible since Fathima Banu was going to be away from home that day.
In a telephone call during the process of arranging the rental, the man had told her that he had bought house appliances worth Rs. 17,000 and would have to occupy the house as early as possible.
“An elderly couple occupied the house on April 21 along with their daughter who was pregnant at that time. The daughter told me that she was expected to deliv
er the baby on April 28,” Fathima Banu recalled.
Other people then began to join the household, she added. This included two children – a “chubby little girl” and a boy. Fathima Banu observed that the people did not interact with their neighbours. The children, too, never came out to play.
“We could only hear the sound of the children. The adults always maintained pin-drop silence,” she said, pointing to the residence which is adjacent to her house.
After being told, on Banu’s son’s instructions, to quit the account belonging to Batticaloa Campus at the Bank of Ceylon," he said.
The university has been the brainchild of Mr. Hisbullah, who was serving as chairman until he was appointed Governor in January this year. His son now serves as chairman, while a board of directors functions under him.
Reliable sources in Malaysia told the Sunday Times that Mr. Hisbullah had even visited Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), a private research university in Malaysia in 2016 and 2017. It is learnt that Mr. Hisbullah, who was a State Minister at that time, had visited UTP to obtain a map of its library to replicate a similar structure at the Batticaloa Campus.
We saw the library that was being built. It has been fitted with solar panels placed in a curve shape on its roof. Construction activities have been briefly stalled as workers have not reported to duty since the Easter Sunday's terror attacks.
house, the people had left – it was later learned, for the house at Sainthamaruthu.
Following the explosions at Sainthamaruthu security forces descended on the house at Maligaikadu, and Banu said she was startled to see equipment such as generators being taken out of the dwelling during their search of the premises.
“I wouldn’t have rented out my house if I had only known that these people were terrorists. This incident has now destroyed my reputation as a teacher,” she sobbed.