After deadly religious riots broke out between Buddhists and Muslims in Sri Lanka in 2014, Mr. Ahmed said he began paying closer attention to Mr. Zaharan. Mr. Ahmed’s moderate Muslim group was trying to calm tensions between the warring communities, and in a meeting with government intelligence agents in early 2015, Mr. Ahmed said, he suggested that intelligence agents monitor Mr. Zaharan.
Mr. Zaharan disappeared for a few years, Mr. Ahmed said, but last December he re-emerged in the town of Mawanella, in central Sri Lanka. Some young men, who the police said were Muslim, defaced three Buddhist statues, and after arresting them, police officers determined the young men had been attending religious classes run by Mr. Zaharan.
That investigation led officers to a remote coconut plantation on the northwestern coast where Sri Lankan officials discovered a large weapons cache, including 100 kilograms of explosives and detonators.
Around the same time, Indian intelligence agents began following Mr. Zaharan. They said on Tuesday that they had cracked an Islamic State cell in southern India. A member of that cell said he had been influenced by Mr. Zaharan’s videos in which the preacher encouraged believers to join the Islamic State. The Indian investigations picked up pace.
Mr. Zaharan’s small group, which he called the National Thowheeth Jama’ath, was clearly getting more ambitious, and the Indians were increasingly concerned. By early April, they provided the Sri Lankans with the names, addresses and phone numbers of Mr. Zaharan’s followers. The Indians said they had information Mr. Zaharan was plotting to blow up churches and attack the Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankans did not make any arrests or increase security at the churches.
On Easter morning, just hours before the bombings, the Indians again communicated with the Sri Lankans that an attack was imminent, according to one Indian official. Again, the Sri Lankans did not do anything.
On Tuesday, the video released by the Islamic State appeared to show Mr. Zaharan and seven unidentified figures pledging allegiance to the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
Mr. Zaharan, the only one whose face is visible, is also the only one holding an assault rifle.
from Best News Viral http://bit.ly/2UCPDCs
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