SPECIAL REPORT : Part 444
Can Pulasthini Rajendra aka Sarah Jesmine, wife of Katuwapitiya suicide bomber Atchchi Muhammadu Hastun, reveal something Abdul Cader Fatima Hadiya, wife of Zahran Hashim, couldn’t? This is the question that baffles lawmaker Mujibur Rahuman. Did Pulasthini know somethings not known to any other person alive? Rahuman asked, pointing out another mystery – the case of Jameel, who had been tasked to carry out a suicide blast at the Taj Samudra but opted to go back to a hotel in Dehiwela where he met an intelligence services officer before he triggered the blast. SJB MP Patali Champika Ranawaka made reference to intelligence officer’s alleged links with Jameel in Parliament. SJB MP Eran Wickremaratne, too, made a statement in Parliament on similar lines. However, Manusha Nanayakkara and Harin Fernando, who had led the campaign to find the truth about the Easter Sunday carnage, dropped the matter after receiving ministerial portfolios from Gotabaya Rajapaksa, at the behest of the then Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) lawmaker Mujibur Rahuman declared in Parliament on Nov. 10, 2022 that Pulasthini Rajendra aka Sarah Jesmine, wife of Thowheed Jamaat suicide bomber Atchchi Muhammadu Hastun, who carried out the 2019 Easter Sunday blast, at St. Sebastian’s Church, at Katuwapitiya, Katana, “is alive”.
Alleging Jesmine had taken refuge in India, the Colombo district MP, who represented the UNP at the time of the Easter Sunday carnage, said that the government was struggling to prove she died during a series of blasts at Saindamaruthu, Kalmunai, on the night of April.
Speaking on the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Amendment Act, MP Rahuman briefly addressed four contentious issues, including the claim Jesmine received refuge in India. So was she a RAW agent in Zahran camp as some speculated.
Addressing largely an empty House, lawmaker Rahuman questioned (1) the inordinate delay in amending the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in spite of promises given by Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as the Prime Minister (2015-2019), and ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (2019-2022), (2) the failure on the part of the Attorney General to disclose the cases withdrawn during Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s administration (3) disappearance of Jesmine and finally (4) dual citizens in Parliament.
Claiming that Jesmine, too, survived the Saindamaruthu blasts, MP Rahuman quoted terror mastermind Zahran Hashim’s wife, Abdul Cader Fatima Hadiya, as having told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI) into the Easter Sunday blasts, that she heard Jesmine’s voice, after the blasts.
Zahran Hashim detonated himself at Shangri-la, on the morning of April 19, 2019. Those killed at Saindamaruthu, a week later, included Zahran Hashim’s father Mohamed Hashim and his brothers Zainee and Rilwan. Rilwan is believed to have been one of those who detonated bombs. Fatima and her child survived the Saindamaruthu blasts and remain in government custody.
MP Rahuman said that three DNZ tests, conducted on the human remains found there, had proved Jesmine hadn’t been among the dead at Saindamaruthu. Of the three tests, two were conducted during the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probe into the Easter Sunday blasts and the P CoI, the MP said, pointing out the third was conducted in the wake of the then Public Security Minister Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera’s declaration in Parliament that the government believed Jesmine didn’t survive the Saindamaruthu blasts.
The lawmaker questioned the failure on the part of the government to establish the truth as Abubakkar, the Traffic OIC of Kalawanchikudy police who allegedly helped Jesmine to flee the country, is in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The outspoken MP alleged that successive governments hadn’t sought Indian assistance to apprehend Jesmine, the only person who could shed light on the Easter Sunday conspiracy.
In a way this is strange logic on the part of Rahuman to assume that Jesmine would know more about the Easter Sunday conspiracy than Zahran’s wife Fatima, who, too, survived the blasts ,with her child. Mind you Zahran was the mastermind and definitely not Jesmine’s husband Atchchi Muhammadu Hastun, who also perished when he detonated a suicide bomb at the packed Katuwapitiya Church, on Easter Sunday. Besides Jesmine, who was originally a Tamil Hindu, and had converted to Islam, only after she fell under the spell of Hastun, in 2015. So she couldn’t have been privy to the terrorist cell’s deep conspiracies, being more of an outsider.
MP Rahuman told The Island that the country couldn’t move forward without addressing the Easter Sunday mystery. The police owed an explanation as regards the arrest of Abubakkar and the status of the investigations into the police officer’s complicity in Jesmine’s escape.
Pulasthini marries Hastun
Abdul Cader Fatima Hadiya
Rajaratnam Kavitha, the mother of Jesmine (former Pulasthini before she married Hastun) is on record as having told the P CoI that her daughter had been with Fatima from February 2019 to April 26, 2019, the day the remnants of the Zahran’s group triggered the Saindamaruthu blasts.
The P CoI was told how Pulasthini had been converted to Islam, in 2015, by the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamaat (SLTJ) Abdul Razik. Pulaththini, born in 1996, had obtained 8As and 1B at the GCE O/L examination. Having chosen to study biology, Pulasthini attended private tuition classes at Kalmunai. Kavitha had been employed in Abu Dhabi at that time.
Pulasthini has disappeared in late July, 2015 and, according to Kavitha’s testimony before the P CoI, her mother (Pulasthini’s grandmother) had informed her (Kavitha) over the phone on 29 July, 2015, of the disappearance of Pulasthini. Kavitha had instructed her mother to lodge a complaint with the Kaluwanchikudy Police. Meanwhile, Razik had called Kavitha’s brother to inform that Pulasthini was with them.
It would be pertinent to mention that these developments take place at the onset of the Yahapalana administration.
Negligence on the part of police
Kavitha had been so worried she had returned from Abu Dhabi and visited Razik’s office, at Maligawatte, where she met Pulasthini dressed like a Muslim woman. There had been three men, including Razik and a woman. Having talked to Pulasthini, Kavitha had lodged a complaint with the Maligawatta police. While Kavitha had been at the Maligawatta police, Pulasthini, accompanied by Razik, visited the police station where the police advised her to take the girl home for 15 days if she remained faithful to Hinduism. But in case Pulasthini decided to follow Islam, she should be allowed to join Razik, the police stressed, while warning she would be arrested if she didn’t act accordingly.
When P CoI queried whether she was aware that a mother had the right to a child, regardless of religion, and if so, did she explain that to the Maligawatte police, Kavitha said that she was aware of that and when that point was raised, law enforcement men had told her that Pulasthini was over 18 years old and that she could do as she wished.
Kavitha also said that the police officers had got her to sign a three-page document. She added that she could not understand the contents as it had been in Sinhala.
“Razik’s aim was to convert Hindus to Islam. When I first went to the Maligawatte Police station I told them that, but the Police did not pay any attention to it and only listened to Razik,” Kavitha added.
However, Kavitha had managed to bring Pulasthini back to her home at Kalawanchikudy where she had removed the Abaya and practiced Hindu rituals. But, 15 days later, Razik had demanded that Pulasthini be returned to them. Then again, Pulasthini had disappeared on Sept. 24, 2015, after accompanying Kavitha to the Batticaloa hospital. Kavitha lodged a complaint with the Batticaloa police.
The following day, Razik had informed Kavitha that Pulasthini had got married to Hastun. Kavitha, accompanied by her brother, and one of her aunts and son, had visited Razik in Maligawatte though he couldn’t prove the said marriage took place. Maligawatta police declared they could not intervene as both Hastun and Pulasthini were over 18 years of age. During that visit to Maligawatte, Kavitha had got to know her only daughter Pulasthini had been named Sarah Jasmine after the marriage.
Obviously, there had been differences between Hastun and Jesmine and the latter left her husband and sought refuge in Abu Dhabi in early January 2016. Jesmine had arrived in Abu Dhabi on January 06, 2016, and was there for about four months. During that short spell she had been employed as a cashier there.
After having convinced Kavitha that she wanted to resume her studies and wouldn’t return to Hastun, Jesmine had returned to Kalawanchikudy in mid-2016. However, Hastun had lodged a complaint with Kattankudy police. Though Jesmin lived in Kalawanchikudy, Hastun had been so influential he got the police to hand her over to him. This couldn’t have been achieved without the intervention of a particular Muslim Federation.
Kavitha told P CoI Zahran’s wife Fatima had taken Pulasthini to a house at Narammala and the last call to her was taken on February 19, 2019 around 12.30 pm.
Kavitha explained how she made abortive attempts to lodge complaints with the Kalawanchikudy and Kattankudy police, after having lodged a complaint with the Narammala police (April 06, 2019) of her daughter’s disappearance. Subsequently, Kavitha lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission’s Regional Office in Batticaloa.
Kavitha asserted that her daughter’s jewellery hadn’t been among the items shown to her by the police, recovered from the scene of the Saindamaruthu blasts.
A tearful Kavitha urged law enforcement authorities to find her daughter. And had she done something wrong to punish her. “But if she is alive, give me a chance to see her at least once”, Kavitha told P CoI.
Over two years after the Easter Sunday attacks, the then Director General, Legal Affairs at the Presidential Secretariat, Attorney-at-Law Harigupta Rohanadeera insisted the government wasn’t aware of what really happened to Pulasthini though aware of her presence at Saindamaruthu at the time the military surrounded their hideout, about a week after the April 21, 2019 blasts. Rohanadeera was on Hiru ‘Salakuna’. The panel of journalists pressed the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s aide over Pulasthini securing refuge in India, having fled the country in a boat.
HRCSL inquiry
Mujibur Rahuman
The Island inquired into the Pulasthini’a matter, in August 2020. The writer took up this issue with the then HRCSL Chairperson Dr. Deepika Udagama and was assured that Kavitha never mentioned about Zahran’s Hashim’s involvement in her daughter’s disappearance when she visited the HRCSL regional office, in Batticaloa.
Dr. Udagama said there hadn’t been any reference to Zahran when Kavitha visited the Regional Office, on April 17, 2019, four days before the Easter attacks.
Dr. Udagama was responding to The Island query whether the Regional Office informed Colombo of receiving a complaint as regards the missing young woman. The Island raised the issue with Dr. Udagama in the wake of Kavitha‘s testimony, before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI), in late July 2020.
Kavitha said that she visited the HRCSL Regional Office, in Batticaloa, after the Kaluwanchikudy and Kattankudy Police stations declined to accept her complaints. Kavitha said: I informed an officer there that I found out my daughter was with Zahran. At that moment he said he knew Zahran and that there was nothing to be scared of since Zahran was a normal person.”
Kavitha also quoted a Batticaloa-based HRCSL official as having said there was no need to lodge a complaint and that he would look into the matter.
Q (The Island): Did HRCSL receive a complaint in this regard or any information regarding Kavitha’s visit to HRCSL Regional Office?
A (Dr. Deepika Udagama): We obtained a detailed report on the matter from our Batticaloa Regional Office. It also includes the log entry relating to the visit of Ms. Kavitha to the Regional Office on 17 April, 2020. According to our records, one Ms. Kavitha of Mankadu, Cettipalayam, had visited our Batticaloa Regional Office on 17 April, 2019, accompanied by a male. Her complaint was that her daughter P. Pulasthini (age 24) had gone away with a young man from the Muslim community and had married him, in 2015, and that her whereabouts were not known. She had appealed to the HRCSL to assist in finding her. As the matter was of a private nature, our officer had informed Ms. Kavitha that it did not fall within the HRCSL’s statutory mandate. Ms. Kavitha had been advised to seek the assistance of the police to find her daughter. At that point the mother had not been informed of any attempts to complain to the police or of any inaction on the part of the police. If that were the case the complaint would have been registered.
In her complaint Ms. Kavitha had stated that one Razik, from a Muslim organisation, was having influence over her daughter’s family life. There had been no mention of a Zahran. In fact, as a gesture of assistance, our officer had called a telephone number, provided by Ms. Kavitha, which was said to be that of Razik.
He had denied knowledge of Pulasthini’s whereabouts and had mentioned that the parents had complained to the Maligawatta police station about the matter and that the police, including CID, had questioned him in that regard. As there was nothing out of the ordinary about the complaint, the HRCSL Colombo had not been informed. That is the regular procedure.
Q: Did P CoI ask HRCSL personnel to appear before it? And if not, will you be inquiring into this (in the wake of PCoI revelation.)
A: No, we have not been summoned by the P CoI. The records from our Batticaloa office, in our opinion, do not give rise to any issue that requires further investigation.
Q: Did HRCSL inquire into the Easter Sunday tragedy or receive complaints as regards the government’s failure to thwart the carnage?
A: Even in the absence of a complaint, the HRCSL could investigate this matter on its own initiative (per S.14 of HRCSL Act, No 21 of 1996). However, we are aware that the same issue is being canvassed before the Supreme Court via FR petition by at least one aggrieved party. When a matter is being canvassed before the Supreme Court in a FR application, the Commission does not conduct a parallel inquiry. The decision of the SC is binding on all parties.
Safer dead
Four years after 2019 Easter Sunday carnage, the fate of Pulasthini remains a mystery. The first volume of the P CoI final report (Vol. 1, page 223) referred to this matter as follows: “The Commission of Inquiry received evidence of two witnesses who testified that Sarah was seen alive after the Easter Sunday attacks and had fled to India. In her testimony, Zahran’s wife Abdul Cader Fatima Hadiya said that after the blasts at Saindamaruthu, on April 26, 2019, she lost consciousness. After she regained consciousness, she could hear the voice of a woman which sounded like that of Sarah. The DNA analysis, with the mother of Sarah, did not establish that Sarah had died in the blasts. In view of this testimony, the COI recommends that investigations into Sarah be continued.”
Several lawmakers, including S.M.S. Marrikar (SJB), Manusha Namayakkara (SJB) and Rauf Hakeem (SLMC), also elected on the SJB ticket, commented on Sarah’s matter.
The former Attorney General Dappula de Livera, in an interview with News First journalist Zulfick Farzan, on May 17, 2021, commented on the issue at hand. Livera said that her death at the Saindamaruthu gun battle, followed by explosions, is yet to be confirmed. “We understand that she fled to India, but that too is not confirmed. Actually, her whereabouts remain unknown.”
The National Catholic Committee for Justice to the Easter Sunday Attack Victims, on July 12, 2021, raised a gamut of issues pertaining to NTJ suicide attacks with the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Sarah’s disappearance was high on the Catholic group’s agenda. Gotabaya Rajapaksa did nothing to address the concerns of the Catholic Church. The Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government, too, seems yet to address the issues. The SJB MP Rahuman’s criticism in Parliament, on November 10, 2022, is evidence that the Easter Sunday mystery hadn’t been solved.
