Several teams of police personnel were deployed on multiple occasions to arrest National Thowheed Jama’ath leader Zahran Hashim, however, the arrest attempts had failed, Acting Director of Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) SP Jagath Nishantha said.

These teams were deployed to Zahran’s addresses directed to Kattankudy and Kekunagolla, his wife’s hometown, while a Muslim officer was also appointed to look into more about the ringleader of Easter Sunday attacks, SP Nishantha stated giving evidence before the Special Parliamentary Select Committee yesterday (01).

The investigation units of the TID has gathered information on the extremist ideologies of Zahran Hashim, he said.

SP Nishantha commented that a Maulvi named K.R.M. Sahlan from Kattankudy had come to meet the DIG and his complaint was recorded on March 2017, after receiving instructions of the Attorney General’s Department.

Responding to the subsequent actions taken by the TID on the complaint, he said that relevant files containing information on the NTJ leader were directed to the Attorney General in June 2017 and May 2018.

The TID’s Acting Director explained that they sought the AG’s Department to ban the National Thowheed Jama’ath and arrest Zahran Hashim.

He admitted that there could have been certain shortcomings in the file directed to the AG’s Department.

When the panel recalled the testimony given by the AG’s Department yesterday that there were inadequate investigative materials in the relevant file, SP Nishantha responded they only provided the information they had received.

Testifying further he said that Zahran Hashim could have been arrested but he had narrowly escaped absconding the police cunningly.