It's time world united against terror

Coming as it did on an Easter day, the most gruesome bombings in Sri Lanka, shattered the joy of the world that was celebrating the return of the Lord.

Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus, a victory over sin and death. The bombings are exactly opposite to that. If any, this is the visit of Satan.

Going by the intelligence reports of Sri Lanka, there are at least 100 ISIS returnees in the country. India gave specific intelligence inputs to Sri Lanka about a possible attack, but unfortunately, Colombo did not take "adequate precautions" to prevent the explosions that killed 218 people and injured at least 450 in the decade's worst terror strike.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday accepted that they had information regarding a possible attack but did not take adequate steps to prevent it.

According to top intelligence sources, Zahran Hasim of National Thowheed Jama'ath of Sri Lanka and his associates had hatched a plan to carry out an Istishhad (suicide attack) in the island country.

They had also conducted a dry run and deployed an explosives-laden motorcycle at Palmunai near Kattankudy on April 16 as a part of their plan. It is puzzling as to why and how the neighbouring country failed in taking precautionary action.

Because the intelligence input by India was too specific that the attack would take place before April 22. They had reportedly selected eight places, a church and a hotel, where Indians came in large numbers. New Delhi had shared the information with Colombo on April 4.

A nationwide alert too was sounded 10 days before the Sunday's attack. Tracing the trainers should not be difficult for the country as all the suspects are local and National Thowheed Jama'ath members should be knowing something about it.

Though they have denied any links to the same and also launched blood donation camp and uploaded the pictures in Facebook etc, they still remain the suspects.

Tracing the masters and non-State actors should be easier as someone must have been trained and brainwashed into launching such an operation of that scale.

It remains a mystery for many in the world today that such attacks are taking place even though the governments have prior information. Our own Pulwama was one such.

As usual a special investigation team has been constituted by the Sri Lanka president, Maithripala Srisena to look into the causes and consequences of the attack.

It will be giving its report to the government in two weeks. But it will be a long battle with such evil forces for all countries that seek peace. Action against perpetrators has to be there, but given the nature of the action, a deep reflection should be done to counter the terror moves by some organisations.

Sanctions against terror groups and their leaders and those nations which are harbouring them or extending cooperation in harbouring them should be dealt with on equal footing.

These are no different from terrorists as they are deliberately fostering them and nurturing them. It is time the world braces up for this task.