Jameel's Story: “I’m sorry, I lied about Hijra.”
Born on December 18, 1982 to an upper middle class family, Abdul Latif Jameel Mohamed was educated at a popular school in Kandy. Following school education, he left for Australia for employment, where he was believed to have become radicalized. He returned in 2013 and within weeks formed ‘Pearl of Wisdom’ together with persons inspired by the ideology of the Islamic State terrorists.
On 12 November, 2012, he had gone to Turkey with the intention of reaching Syria, but failed. Immediately thereafter, he came back and together with members of his previous group, formed ‘Jamathe Millathe Ibrahim’ to propagate the IS ideology and to recruit personnel. He went to Kalmunai on October 14, 2016 to attend the marriage of group member Mohamed Husni, where he met Zahran.
The first intelligence report with regard to Jameel’s extremist activities was referred to the CID on July 20, 2015 for further investigation. On four more latter occasions, the State Intelligence Service sent written reports asking that he be investigated. Also, his brother Hakeem has confirmed that the Army intelligence too, had been observing him since 2015. He had advised his brother many times in an attempt to free him from extremism.
Jameel
According to investigation reports, Jameel was summoned to the TID on April 12, 2018 and was released after recording a brief statement. The suicide bomber arrived at Hotel Taj Samurdra with the intention of exploding his bomb, but after failing to do so, exploded it in Dehiwala later.
It is important to pay attention to the statement given by his wife Fatima Shifana to the TID following the Easter Sunday bomb attacks.
He had left home at 10.00 pm on April 19, 2019, saying that he was going out with his friends and that would possibly return on Monday. She said that he had the habit of switching-off his mobile phone when he was out of home.
Anyhow, around 3.00 am on April 21, 2019, he sent a WhatsApp message to his wife’s mobile phone 077XXXXX77 which said, “Shifana I’m sorry I lied about Hijra. I’m going to meet Allah soon or might come. You can show this to the police if you want.”
She had seen the message only around 9.00 am. Around half an hour later, she had called Jameel’s brother Hakeem and informed him about the message she received and forwarded it to his mobile phone. “I was crying when I called Hakeem Aiya and he asked why. I forwarded Jameel’s message to Hakeem Aiya because I could not say it,” she said.
Since they were unable to locate his passport, the wife and most in his family had believed that he had gone to Syria.
Around 10.00 am, Hakeem telephoned a retired senior SP whom he knew for a long time. He had advised him to ask Jameel’s wife to go to Wellampitiya police immediately and lodge a complaint. Saying that that could create trouble for her, Hakeem asked the ex-policeman if it was better to inform the TID which had been monitoring Jameel since 2015. But, he said that the day being a Sunday, it would be a holiday for the TID. By that time, the media has been reporting about the bomb blasts.
The retired senior SP has relayed what Hakeem had told him to the Army intelligence and the State Intelligence. That happened between 10.00 am and 10.30 am. As a result, intelligence members had gone to Jameel’s home around 12.30 pm.
In the meantime, Hakeem telephoned the woman again, who told her that Jameel had telephoned her from a mosque in Wellawatte. Hakeem was told that he was at a mosque in Wellawatte over a family dispute because one Amir was suspecting him. It has been confirmed that she had told Amir that Jameel had left home over a family dispute.
Later, Hakeem got that telephone number and gave it to two policemen from the police headquarters whom he got to know when they were investigating Jameel since 2016. Meanwhile, a bomb exploded in the house of Ilham that was located in front of Hakeem’s house. Thereafter, Hakeem was taken to Dematagoda police. Police continued in their attempt to locate Jameel.
But, Jameel arrived in a three wheeler at a lodge named ‘Tropical’ from the nearby mosque and killed himself by exploding the bomb around 1.30 pm. Two civilians too, were killed in the explosion.
Certain parties have made wrong information public with regard to Jameel. But, it is true that he was a person under surveillance by the intelligence since 2015. Also, his family had been worried by his extremism. In the end, it should be said that it was disastrous that investigators had freed him after they questioned him at the first instance.
(By a special correspondent)
