- This article first appeared as part of a special supplement issued by Ceylon Today, a daily newspaper based in Colombo.
Six years after suicide bombers ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 268 people and wounding over 500 more, a recently unearthed FBI affidavit has begun to peel back the layers of secrecy, silence, and confusion that have long cloaked the truth. Filed on December 11, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, this 72-page document offers the most forensic and detailed account to date of the attacks, their ideological roots, and the extremist network that orchestrated them.
What the affidavit confirms—with clarity and without equivocation—is that the April 21, 2019 massacre was not a spontaneous or locally confined act of terror. Rather, it was the calculated execution of a plot hatched by an officially recognized ISIS cell operating in Sri Lanka, led by extremist preacher Mohamed Cassim Mohamed Zahran, widely known as Zahran Hashim.
A Campaign of Precision, Not Chaos
According to the affidavit, Zahran and his group pledged allegiance—or “bayat”—to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This allegiance was more than symbolic; it was central to their operational identity. A photo released by ISIS’s media wing, Amaq, shortly after the attack, showed Zahran unmasked, standing in front of an ISIS flag, flanked by four of his co-conspirators holding knives. It was a chilling declaration of affiliation.
The attacks were not a result of sudden radicalisation, as many had speculated. FBI findings revealed extensive planning and training, with members undergoing ideological indoctrination and paramilitary instruction in makeshift classrooms inside rented homes. The group’s “second emir,” Mohamed Naufer, was named as Zahran’s key deputy, and the leadership hierarchy extended to other figures such as Mohamed Riskan.
ISIS Literature, Manuals, and Weaponry
The FBI affidavit draws on evidence collected from hard drives seized by Sri Lankan authorities, including one from suicide bomber Ilham Ibrahim. That drive contained over one terabyte of ISIS propaganda materials—videos, manuals, and texts such as The Book of Jihad. These documents promoted violent jihad and provided tactical guidance on explosives, concealment, and combat techniques, including the manufacture of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The attackers used nitrate-based IEDs that, according to the FBI’s Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, showed clear signs of chemical components not naturally occurring in the environment. Aluminium powder, water gel, ammonium nitrate, and even urea nitrate were employed—materials requiring knowledge and access, confirming premeditated mass murder, not improvised fanaticism. A co-conspirator known by the initials M.M.M.H. confessed to supplying nearly 2,000 detonators and over 1,300 water gel explosives.
Target Selection and Ideological Symbolism
The FBI affidavit also exposed how the group selected their targets with a precise mix of symbolism and strategy. The four luxury hotels—Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, Taj Samudra, and Kingsbury—were known to host international guests. Zahran reportedly chose the Shangri-La because its headquarters were in China, which ISIS viewed as an enemy state. Simultaneously, churches were targeted not just for their religious significance, but because Easter Sunday promised maximum congregation turnout.
Most disturbing perhaps is the account of Zahran’s wife, Fatima Mohamed Jifry. When Sri Lankan forces cornered her following the attacks, she detonated a device inside her home, killing herself, her three sons, and three Sri Lankan security officers. She was pregnant at the time.
Weaponising Retaliation and Conspiracy
The affidavit dispels long-standing conspiracy theories by laying out how ISIS ideologues embedded themselves within Sri Lankan extremist narratives. Zahran reportedly told his followers the attacks were revenge for a March 2019 U.S.-led airstrike in Syria that allegedly killed 3,000 people. ISIS propaganda had begun encouraging attacks on churches weeks before the bombings. One article in Rumiyah, an ISIS magazine, even featured an image of an American church with the ominous caption: “a popular crusader gathering place waiting to be burned down.”
Zahran and his deputies used encrypted apps like Telegram and Threema to communicate with ISIS operatives in Syria. FBI digital forensics uncovered hundreds of glorifying messages exchanged via Facebook. On April 28, 2016, Naufer was asked directly on Facebook whether he accepted ISIS’s caliph. His response in Tamil was unequivocal: “The answer to your question is yes.”
A Rebuttal to Sri Lanka’s Political Obfuscation
The FBI’s affidavit is not mere commentary. It is a legally binding, data-driven document rooted in surveillance, confessions, digital forensics, and corroborated intelligence. Yet in Sri Lanka, the report remains largely unknown to the public. The government and political class continue to speak of a “missing story,” leaving the space open for manipulation, denial, and diversion.
This lack of transparency has only fueled conspiracy theories that distract from the perpetrators. As the FBI affidavit shows, the attackers were not acting alone in chaos but were embedded in a structured and ideologically aligned operation with global roots.
In releasing this affidavit, the intention is clear: to break the cycle of speculation and to draw a line between political convenience and uncomfortable truth. The victims of the Easter Sunday attacks deserve justice grounded not in conjecture or political point-scoring but in facts—no matter how damning.
