Sri Lanka Blasts: Two sulking Muslim ministers in Sri Lanka return to government fold
Colombo, Jun 19: Two of the nine Sri Lankan Muslim ministers, who had resigned in the wake of growing anti-minority sentiments following the Easter Sunday bombings, returned to the government fold on Wednesday, days after the country's chief Buddhist prelate urged them to reconsider the decision.
Kabir Hashim and AHM Haleem were sworn-in as ministers by President Maithripala Sirisena.
The development came a day after a meeting of the Muslim ministers to reconsider their positions ended inconclusively.
Both Hashim and Haleem are from the United National Party (UNP) of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
It was not clear if other ministers from the main Muslim party, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, would return to the fold.
Along with the nine ministers, two provincial governors from the minority community also resigned on June 3 to allow the Lankan government to investigate allegations against some of them on links to an Islamist extremist group blamed for the deadly terror attacks that claimed 258 lives, including 11 Indians, and injured nearly 500.
They had also protested what they term the government's inability to ensure the safety of their community which constitute nine per cent of the island's 21 million population.
The Muslim-owned properties and businesses were attacked by mobs and the Muslim ministers claimed that the minority community was facing arbitrary arrests on certain occasions.
A Muslim Cabinet minister and two provincial governors were accused of having sponsored the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) blamed for the attacks.
Meanwhile, a parliamentary probe was told that the Muslim clerics in the eastern Kathankudi area foresaw the Islam radicalism and had forewarned the political leadership as far back as 2017.
Moulavi Sahlan told the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) that Sufi Islamic leaders in Kattankudy had informed the President's office, Prime Minister's Office and the Attorney General's Department and the police chief about "the growing radicalism".
He said that Zahran Hashim, the leader of the NTJ the banned outfit blamed for the attacks on three Colombo hotels and three churches had asked them not to commemorate Christmas in 2016.
The former chief of the Kattankudy Police Ariyabandu Wedagedara said that he had not received any complaints on Zahran's extremism. Yet there had been sectarian clashes in the area.
Sirisena wanted the halt to proceedings of the PSC appointed by Assembly Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to probe the events leading to the attacks.
He had threatened not to reconvene the Cabinet until the government abandoned the select committee process.
Sirisena claimed that the committee proceedings were aimed at putting the blame of the attacks on him being the Defence Minister for the intelligence failure.
There are 19 Muslims lawmakers in the 225-member Parliament and nine of them held Cabinet, state and deputy ministerial positions.
India had shared intelligence inputs with Sri Lanka about possible attacks weeks before the bombings.
Nine suicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa, and three high-end hotels frequented by tourists in the country's deadliest violence since the devastating civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended in 2009.
The Islamic State claimed the attacks, but the government blamed local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaath for the attacks.
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PM Modi is controlled by Donald Trump, wants to do the same in TN: Rahul Gandhi
Ranipet (Tamil Nadu) (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was being "controlled" by US President Donald Trump and that the PM wanted the AIADMK to capture power so that he could control Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.
Also, he claimed that the prime minister "handed out our energy security and gave away our data, besides selling our farmers and small and medium industries."
"You saw yesterday (in Parliament) the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi completely lacking confidence," Rahul said on the delimitation bill.
"He (PM) could not even face the opposition. He was sitting sideways. And the reason is, he is controlled by the United States. He signed the India-US deal that sold our country out," Rahul said while addressing an election rally here.
He further said, "Today, if Donald Trump tells Modi to jump, Modi jumps. If Donald Trump tells Modi to lie down, Modi lies down. Why? Because Donald Trump controls Modi fully. How does he control him? He controls through the Epstein files. He controls him because he knows Modi's financial systems and understands Modi's link with Adani," the Congress leader alleged.
Just as he was being controlled by Trump, Modi wanted to do the same to the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. "That is why he wants to put AIADMK in power in TN," Rahul said.
The Union government had rejected references to PM Modi in the latest Jeffrey Epstein case files, describing it as “little more than trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal that deserves to be dismissed with the utmost contempt”.
