Kurunegala District UNP MP Thushara Indunil said former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had supported the setting up of the National Thowheed Jamath head office in Colombo for the extremist group.
He said Rajapaksa knew of this group and its extremist activities in 2014. “It was during the previous regime that M.L.A.M Hizbullah proposed the setting up of a university in Kattankudy for extremist ideologies.
This was signed and endorsed by the Youth Affairs Minister Dallas Allahapperuma on June 11,2013,” he said.
“The former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa helped strengthen the NTJ by devoting a plot of land in Colombo for the office of NTJ.”
“He tried to divide the peaceful community of Muslims into two. He knew that it would help him in his political endeavours which is why he strengthened one group against the other. Basil Rajapaksa said that there are 200 such mosques and the defence secretary assisted in setting them up,” he said. He added that it was incorrect to fault the intelligence services as they acted on information that had been passed on to them.
MP Indunil stressed that the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulema had repeatedly warned the previous government of this extremist group and their activities. “They informed the Defence Secretary as early as 2014 that this group was taking shape. It was during the previous regime that NTJ was nurtured. If the former Defence Secretary was privy to this information, we ask of what he did then, knowing the threats it posed.”
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