Air Force intelligence alerted SIS on several occasions since 2014 to danger of extremism

Air Force intelligence officers had informed the State Intelligence Service (SIS) of the activities of Islamic extremists on several occasions since 2014, a senior Air Force officer, on Friday (24) told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) investigating the Easter Sunday attacks.

The witness said that they had provided information to the SIS, on 26 August 2014, about a group of Pakistani nationals engaged in extremist activities in Kattankudy. The Pakistanis had been directly working with several Thowheed Jamaat organisations in the area, he said.

The witness said that Mohamed Kamil, a resident of Dewahuwa, Galewela, was an Islamic State (IS) ideologue and had run a shop called ‘Jayamini’ at the Dambulla Economic Centre. This was relayed to the SIS on 25 July, 2017.

On May 2017, Air Force intelligence warned the SIS and the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) about several Sri Lankan Facebook accounts that were promoting ISIS.

The Air Force intelligence had also provided information to the SIS about a person who was staying in the Pasyala under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the conversion of a traditional mosque in the Godapitiya, Akuressa into a Thowheed Jamaat mosque, the witness added.